{"id":616027,"date":"2026-04-20T07:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T07:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/616027\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T07:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T07:00:12","slug":"francisco-lindor-defends-manager-carlos-mendoza-after-mets-drop-11th-straight-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/616027\/","title":{"rendered":"Francisco Lindor defends manager Carlos Mendoza after Mets drop 11th straight game"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 The losses are piling up for the New York Mets<\/a>, and Francisco Lindor<\/a> thinks the criticism surrounding the team is about to get very loud.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s already pretty noisy.<\/p>\n

New York dropped its 11th consecutive game when closer Devin Williams<\/a> blew a ninth-inning lead in a 2-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs<\/a> in 10 innings Sunday. It\u2019s the longest slide for the club since it lost 11 in a row from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8 in 2004.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just got to stick together and stay within ourself and fight,\u201d Lindor said. \u201cFight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Led by Lindor and Juan Soto<\/a>, the Mets began the season with World Series aspirations. They had an opening-day payroll of $352.2 million, tops in the majors.<\/p>\n

Soto strained his right calf during a 10-3 victory at San Francisco on April 3 \u2014 the beginning of a four-game win streak that lifted New York to a 7-4 record.<\/p>\n

That seems like a long time ago.<\/p>\n

The Mets have been outscored 62-19 during their losing streak. They are batting .145 with runners in scoring position during the skid after going 0 for 9 in those situations in the series finale against the Cubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t hit that many balls hard today,\u201d manager Carlos Mendoza said. \u201cSo yeah, we\u2019ve got to get better at-bats, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mets became the first team to lose 11 or more games in a row in April since the 2022 Cincinnati Reds<\/a>. The last 12-game slide for the franchise was in August 2002.<\/p>\n

Only four teams have reached the postseason after going through a double-digit losing streak, including the Cleveland Guardians<\/a> last year and the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it does compound as you continue to lose, but that\u2019s for us to stop it and get ourselves going on the right track,\u201d Mets pitcher David Peterson<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

Most of the noise Lindor mentioned likely will focus on Mendoza, who was hired in November 2023. But president of baseball operations David Stearns backed Mendoza on Friday, and Lindor offered a strident defense of his manager after Sunday\u2019s loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cMendy\u2019s our guy. He\u2019s our leader,\u201d the All-Star shortstop said. \u201cHe\u2019s in control and he\u2019s done a tremendous job. We just haven\u2019t executed. It would be unfair to put everything on him because at the end of the day he has gotten the ship in the right direction. The people that are paddling, we\u2019ve got to paddle and execute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with the team\u2019s struggles at the plate, New York was in position to salvage the finale of its six-game trip.<\/p>\n

The Mets had a 1-0 lead before Williams gave up pinch-hitter Michael Conforto<\/a>\u2019s tying double in the ninth. Craig Kimbrel<\/a> was saddled with the loss when Nico Hoerner<\/a> drove in Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/a> with a sacrifice fly in the 10th.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old Williams signed a $51 million, three-year contract with the Mets in free agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really, really disappointed,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThey gave me a lead. It\u2019s my job to hold it, and I made a mistake. It cost us the game today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mets are off Monday before beginning a nine-game homestand Tuesday night against the Minnesota Twins<\/a>. Soto is expected to return at some point during the homestand, but Lindor & Co. know the slugger can only help so much.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to lengthen our lineup, but even when he comes, we\u2019ve still got to get it done,\u201d Lindor said. \u201cIt would be unfair to just throw everything on him. As a team, we\u2019ve got to come together and execute.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/mlb<\/p>\n

Jay Cohen, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 The losses are piling up for the New York Mets, and Francisco Lindor thinks the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-616027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}