\u201cBut of course you must remember, fans, the turning points in our history are not always so grand as they are cracked up to be in the murals on your post office wall.\u201d
\u2014\u201cThe Great American Novel,\u201d Philip Roth<\/p>\n
The Mets\u2019 season pivoted just before 9 p.m. on June 13.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when, winners of six straight and holders of a 5-1 lead over the Tampa Bay Rays, New York surrendered a six-run sixth inning. It has hardly recovered in the two months since.<\/p>\n
You can look at the Mets\u2019 woes in different time frames: their current seven-game losing streak, their 11 losses in the last 12 games, their 31 losses in their last 49 games, dating back to June 13 and Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
Teams have bounced back from seven-game losing streaks. The 2006 Cardinals \u2014 sorry, sorry, I know, I know \u2014 lost seven in a row three straight times. Twice that streak extended to eight. They won the World Series anyway. Five other teams in the wild-card era have lost seven in a row the same year they won the World Series.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, no team in history has rebounded from a 1-11 stretch to win the World Series. Plenty of teams have had 2-10 stretches en route to winning it all, most recently the 2010 Giants.<\/p>\n
And if we extend the Mets\u2019 futility to 50 for round-number purposes, their 19-31 record over that stretch should strike a chord. That\u2019s the record everyone instantly connects to the 2019 Washington Nationals, who started 19-31 through 50 games before a dramatic turnaround to win the World Series. The 2014 Giants, for what it\u2019s worth, are the only other team to win it all with a stretch in which they lost 31 of 50.<\/p>\n
Lower the bar to a pennant-winner, and the results are (mildly) more promising. Two years ago, the Diamondbacks\u2019 season also turned on June 13, a 41-25 start devolving into a 16-34 stretch that culminated in a nine-game losing streak through August 11. Arizona went 27-19 the rest of the way, snuck into the playoffs as a wild card and won the National League pennant that year.<\/p>\n
(The Diamondbacks\u2019 negative-67 run differential over those 50 games is the worst-ever for a pennant-winner as well. The Mets are at minus-64 over the last 50.)<\/p>\n
There is no single player, no single aspect of the team to blame. Seldom has a plummet like this been as comprehensive across the roster. Here\u2019s where they ranked in baseball in significant categories through the first 65 games versus the last 49.<\/p>\n
The Mets’ plummet<\/p>\n
First 65 GmsSince<\/p>\n
SP ERA<\/p>\n
1st<\/p>\n
25th<\/p>\n
RP ERA<\/p>\n
2nd<\/p>\n
25th<\/p>\n
Team OPS<\/p>\n
5th<\/p>\n
T-28th<\/p>\n
When everything is bad, there is no single solution \u2014 no savior to be called up or to come off the IL, no new pitch to introduce, no lineup shuffle to spark a hot streak. The Mets need 26 different guys to all play better \u2014 now.<\/p>\n
If we\u2019re spelunking for silver linings, well, the Mets have done this before. They did something like this just last year, because yep, this stretch is as bad as what transpired in the first two months of 2024. In fact, New York needs a good week to match the 22-33 record that marked its late-May nadir in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to start getting the job done,\u201d Carlos Mendoza said Sunday. \u201cIt\u2019s that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exposition<\/p>\n
The Mets went 0-for-the-week. They were swept at home by Cleveland and swept on the road by Milwaukee. They have lost seven in a row and 11 of 12. They are still, somehow, in playoff position at 63-55, 1 1\/2 games ahead of the Reds. They are a season-worst 5 1\/2 games behind first-place Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Atlanta took four of five in an extended series with the Marlins to push its record to 51-67 \u2014 3 1\/2 games clear of the Nationals in the NL East basement.<\/p>\n
Seattle extended its winning streak to seven in finishing off a sweep of the Rays on Sunday. At 66-53, the Mariners hold the top wild card in the American League and are just 1\/2 game behind first-place Houston. They visit the Orioles for three starting Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The pitching possibles<\/p>\n
v. Atlanta<\/p>\n
RHP Clay Holmes (9-6, 3.46 ERA) v. RHP Spencer Strider (5-9, 4.04 ERA)
LHP David Peterson (7-5, 2.98) v. RHP Carlos Carrasco (2-2, 6.18)
RHP Kodai Senga (7-4, 2.30) v. RHP Bryce Elder (4-9, 6.12)<\/p>\n
v. Seattle<\/p>\n
RHP Frankie Montas (3-2, 6.38) v. RHP Logan Evans (6-4, 4.36)
LHP Sean Manaea (1-1, 4.33) v. RHP Bryan Woo (10-6, 3.08)
RHP Clay Holmes v. RHP George Kirby (7-5, 4.04)<\/p>\n
Injury updates<\/p>\n
Mets’ injured list<\/p>\n
Player<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Injury<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elig.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
ETA<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Right shoulder impingement<\/p>\n
Now<\/p>\n
August<\/p>\n
Right hip impingement<\/p>\n
Now<\/p>\n
August<\/p>\n
Lower back inflammation<\/p>\n
Sept. 9<\/p>\n
September<\/p>\n
Right elbow sprain<\/p>\n
Aug. 14<\/p>\n
September<\/p>\n
Fractured left tibia<\/p>\n
Now<\/p>\n
September<\/p>\n
Left lat strain<\/p>\n
Now<\/p>\n
2026<\/p>\n
Tommy John surgery<\/p>\n
Now<\/p>\n
2026<\/p>\n
Elbow surgery<\/p>\n
Aug. 15<\/p>\n
2026<\/p>\n
Ruptured left Achilles tendon<\/p>\n
Aug. 26<\/p>\n
2026<\/p>\n
Tommy John surgery<\/p>\n
Now<\/p>\n
2026<\/p>\n
Tommy John surgery<\/p>\n
Now<\/p>\n
2026<\/p>\n
Left shoulder fracture<\/p>\n
Now<\/p>\n
2026<\/p>\n
Tommy John surgery<\/p>\n
Sept. 1<\/p>\n
2027<\/p>\n
Red = 60-day IL
Orange = 15-day IL
Blue = 10-day IL<\/p>\n
Blackburn has been one rehab start away from a return for at least two turns now; the Mets are biding their time to determine how to \u2014 or even whether to \u2014 deploy him. His rehab clock is up on August 20, so he can only make one more rehab start, if that\u2019s what New York chooses once again.
\nMegill could begin a rehab assignment this week. His return now looks like it\u2019s pushed into September.
\nWaddell made his third rehab appearance Sunday, throwing 4 1\/3 innings and taking the loss behind Nolan McLean. Whenever he does return, Waddell stands a good chance of being optioned to the minors.
\nMinor-league schedule<\/p>\n
Triple-A: Syracuse at Rochester (Washington)
Double-A: Binghamton v. New Hampshire (Toronto)
High-A: Brooklyn v. Hub City (Texas)
Low-A: St. Lucie v. Jupiter (Miami)<\/p>\n
Last week in MetsA note on the epigraph<\/p>\n
The first Philip Roth novel I ever read, I found \u201cThe Great American Novel\u201d really very silly. And so I loved it. That was before I covered baseball for a living, so I\u2019m curious what it would read like now.<\/p>\n
Trivia time<\/p>\n
The 1973 Mets rebounded from one 17-33 stretch to win the pennant. At their low point, how many games were they under .500?<\/p>\n
(I\u2019ll reply to the correct answer in the comments.)<\/p>\n
(Photo of Pete Alonso: Benny Sieu \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBut of course you must remember, fans, the turning points in our history are not always so grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,1189,99],"class_list":["post-76006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}