PHILADELPHIA — Before formulating a response, Francisco Lindor shook his head. Over the past few months, he has heard the same question multiple times. And for good reason, he knows. The New York Mets keep enduring lengthy rough stretches. They extended their losing streak to five games with an 11-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday, warranting the latest need for the familiar inquiry.
Why do these long stretches of poor play persist?
“We haven’t been consistent,” Lindor said. “It’s one of those years that things haven’t clicked for a long time. We’re still in a position where we can make the year look completely different. Everyone here is pushing toward that.”
The best thing to happen to the Mets on Wednesday night occurred roughly 3,000 miles away, when the San Francisco Giants lost. The Mets, who have had three losing streaks of at least five games since June, remain two games ahead of the Giants in the National League wild-card race. But now there’s company. The Cincinnati Reds won Wednesday, so they are also two games behind. Sixteen games are left.
Can the Mets snap out of it in time? They’ve done it before. But doing so depends on their ability to quickly rectify the issues below.
Mets’ biggest flaw is their starting pitching
The Mets aren’t getting length or quality from the veterans in their starting rotation. Tuesday, Sean Manaea allowed four runs in five innings. Clay Holmes followed that up Wednesday by lasting four innings (plus two batters) and surrendering four runs. Such performances, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said, put the Mets in a bind because of a trickle-down effect; facing four-run deficits early on impacts the kind of at-bats the Mets take and how they manage their bullpen.
Sean Manaea allowed four runs in five innings in a 9-3 loss to the Phillies on Tuesday. (Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
Holmes and Manaea are staying in the rotation.
“We’re counting on them,” Mendoza said. “We need those guys.”
The situation, however, seems fluid.
Mets officials are mapping out their pitching plans five days at a time. They are not going further than that on the calendar, let alone looking ahead to postseason plans. There’s no reason to. Too much can change, especially when all options appear to be on the table.
Rookies Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat offer the most promise. By design, they each had a slow ramp-up at the start of the season to account for a larger workload later. Mets officials don’t think the young pitchers, all beyond their previous single-season highs for innings, are too far off pace. The Mets won’t push them to a point where they show serious fatigue. But they’re not overly concerned about volume heading into the middle of September.
To compensate for the lack of quality from their veterans, the Mets could explore tandem starts (combining two starters with shorter outings), but it might be more likely that they design shorter starts and pass the ball to their bullpen.
There’s a problem with that, though …
The bullpen isn’t as good as it should be
The bullpen might not be well equipped for such a strategy of designing short starts. Mendoza pulled Holmes at 76 pitches Wednesday, and it didn’t help.
“We tried that today,” Mendoza said. “We tried to be aggressive. Every situation will be different, depending on where the game is at, where you’re at with your bullpen, how many games you’re playing. We’ll make adjustments.”
Lefty Gregory Soto relieved Holmes and allowed an inherited runner to score. In the sixth inning, he gave up four more runs. The Phillies continuously attacked his fastball.
“That fastball was flat today,” Mendoza said, “and they took advantage of it.”
Like Soto, the Mets acquired reliever Ryan Helsley in a trade before the deadline. Lately, Soto has been shaky. But that is nothing compared to Helsley’s struggles. Before Wednesday’s game, people within the organization were optimistic about Helsley putting his tipping problem and overall poor pitching behind him, pointing to a clean inning Monday. But Wednesday, Helsley allowed two earned runs in one inning. With the Mets, he has yet to pitch consecutive outings without allowing a run.
Thus, the amount of trusted relievers is down to Tyler Rogers (another deadline acquisition), lefty Brooks Raley, closer Edwin Díaz and maybe Reed Garrett, who has pitched just once (Sept. 7) since returning from the injured list. Clearly, the Mets need more than that.
The Mets also need a lot more from their lineup
In August, the Mets had nine players sport an OPS north of .800, and Jeff McNeil just missed with a .799 OPS.
Things are not going nearly as well in September.
In their three losses against the Phillies, the Mets have scored just six runs. All but one of those runs were scored in the late innings with the Mets facing a large deficit, baseball’s equivalent of garbage.
The Mets own a .751 OPS in September. Take away Juan Soto’s production, however, and that figure drops to .686. Lindor is 0-for-his-last-15 at-bats. In nine September games, Brandon Nimmo hasn’t had an extra-base hit. Cedric Mullins snapped an 0-for-26 skid with a single in the ninth inning Wednesday. Since returning from the injured list, Francisco Alvarez is 2-for-18 with nine strikeouts.
When the lineup was hot in August, the Mets clobbered fastballs. Lately, they’ve been looking at too many strikes. Their called strike percentage (18.8 percent) in September leads the National League. On Wednesday, Phillies lefty Cristopher Sánchez racked up 13 called strikes with his sinker, a pitch he threw 53 times. Like Ranger Suárez, who shut down the Mets on Tuesday, Sánchez presents a tough matchup. But these are the kinds of pitchers the Mets would face in October — if they’re playing then.
(Top photo of Clay Holmes: Bill Streicher / Imagn Images)