It doesn’t really feel like overstatement to say the Mets out of the blue appear like a dead-team strolling.
And but nearly as unbelievable as their futility on the plate this week, these identical Mets may nonetheless clinch a wild-card spot as early as Sunday.
That’s, in the event that they’re ever going to swing the bats once more just like the crew that for therefore lengthy had the most effective document within the majors after June 1. And at this level, absolutely no person who has watched them play this week would guess on that.
However momentum in baseball can flip rapidly, as these 2024 Mets have confirmed themselves this season.
So have they got one other turnaround in them?
It doesn’t really feel prefer it, that’s for positive, after the Mets have misplaced three straight essential video games with out even placing up a lot of a battle.
Sure, after such a feel-good season this crew has introduced up all of the outdated historical past of heartbreak that makes Mets’ followers really feel their crew is cursed, whether or not it’s ’98, ’07, ’22 or any variety of different deadly finishes over time.
It simply didn’t appear potential these Mets would go within the tank with all the cash on the desk. They had been enjoying too nicely. Oozing with confidence. Enjoying a few of their greatest baseball towards the higher groups in each leagues.
And now this.
They’ve misplaced three straight, together with Saturday evening’s 6-0 defeat by the Brewers in Milwaukee, but it surely’s extra the best way they’ve misplaced that’s so alarming.
They haven’t hit in any respect, wanting like a crew feeling the big-game strain on this ultimate week of the season.
You possibly can say the second has appeared too massive for them or you’ll be able to say it extra harshly: that they seem like choking once more.
It’s a grimy phrase in sports activities and never one for use flippantly however is there some other means during which to border it? Particularly with at the least just a few of the identical key gamers, Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, and Pete Alonso, who had been on the crew that failed so badly on the finish of the ’22 season.
And in the event you didn’t assume all of this was ominous sufficient, take into account how the Atlanta Braves received their sport on Saturday: with none apart from Travis d’Arnaud hitting a walk-off residence run to defeat the Kansas Metropolis Royals, shifting them one sport forward of the Mets within the NL Wild Card standings.
How is it that the Braves at all times appear to search out methods to win video games right now of the yr? What’s their secret sauce anyway and can the Mets ever discover their very own?
Look, there are many causes to consider the Steve Cohen/David Stearns Mets have a promising future, constructing a company with a powerful farm system with the intent of getting a Dodgers-like sustainable winner for years to come back.
In that sense this can be a bonus yr, within the massive image.
And but that doesn’t soften the blow after these Mets performed at such a excessive degree for months, particularly in a season during which a championship seems fully up for grabs, with nothing resembling a brilliant crew in both league.
It simply wasn’t imagined to crumble like this. Luis Severino had a so-so begin in Atlanta. Sean Manaea, as near a positive factor as any pitcher in baseball the final two months, couldn’t meet the second Friday evening in Milwaukee.
And even Jose Quintana, who was largely excellent towards the Brewers on Saturday, nonetheless price himself with two walks within the fourth inning that led to a two-run rally and a fifth-inning exit for the lefthander.
But clearly the story primarily has been in regards to the lack of offense. And what has to harm Mets’ followers probably the most is to see The Core, which has turn out to be one thing of a unflattering time period because it applies to the Mets of latest years, failing miserably once more.
Meaning Alonso, Nimmo, and Lindor, since Jeff McNeil is injured. They didn’t hit sufficient two years in the past when the Mets had been swept by the Braves to lose the division and misplaced two of three to the San Diego Padres within the wild-card spherical.
And so they’re not hitting now.
Lindor has a legit excuse, enjoying with ache from his again harm that’s important sufficient to restrict him to DH duties on this evening. Nonetheless, after getting two singles on Friday, there was hope he was discovering his MVP kind, but went 0-for-4 on Saturday with two strikeouts.
Nimmo has been quiet throughout these three losses, as he performs out a horrible second half that has him hitting beneath .200 for the reason that All-Star Recreation. It’s laborious to clarify what has occurred to him after he was getting so many clutch hits within the first half that he ought to have been an All-Star.
After which there’s Alonso. He was imagined to have an Aaron Choose-like stroll yr and power Cohen to make him a Met for all times with a mega-deal. As a substitute he has price himself god is aware of what number of tens of millions of {dollars} with a sub-par season that has featured few, if any, really memorable moments.
Certainly, it looks like Alonso’s season has been outlined by chasing sliders out of the strike zone, particularly in clutch conditions, and at this level he appears nearly helpless to vary the sample.
There may be nonetheless time, after all. Time for any of them. Time for these Mets to idiot us all, the best way they did again in June once they stopped enjoying like losers and one way or the other changed into what appeared like an excellent baseball crew.
The D-backs are giving the Mets the chance to rewrite the script as soon as extra. It’s simply laborious, after their no-shows this week, to see how they’ll do it.
