The New York Mets need some wins. After meandering through the first (almost) quarter of the season at a sub-.500 pace (17-20, third place in the National League East as of Thursday evening), the New York Mets have a golden opportunity ahead of them.
Beginning Friday at Citi Field versus the Miami Marlins (10-27; the worst team in baseball), the Mets’ next three series opponents have a collective record of 41-67 with — of all teams — the Detroit Tigers closest to playing winning baseball (16-18).
Between the Fish and the Washington Nationals — whom the Mets play their next 13 games against, alternating home series twice from May 10 through May 23 — the Metsies have an 11-out-of-13 run (or something to that effect) within grasp’s reach.
The Marlins own a team ERA of 4.69, tied with the Mets for 22nd-worst in baseball, and the Nationals sit two spots below them with a 4.92 ERA. Up until recently, the Mets’ offense was cruising right along. A kickstart back into gear wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Hopefully, some divisional contests up against a number of sub-par starting pitchers — as well as the worst (Nats; 6.41 bullpen ERA) and third-worst (Marlins; 5.87 ERA) relief corps in baseball — will get this team’s competitive juices flowing and bring their bats back to life.
After the Miami/DC four-step, the Mets welcome the Tigers into Flushing for a three-game set then things get tougher as they head out west for a four-game series versus the Dodgers and three in Arizona.
Now’s the time to pounce on a string of lesser opponents and retake control of a be-careful-or-this-could-get-out-of-hand-quick season.
The Mets were at 9-4 on April 12 and leading by a half-game in the NL East. On April 23, the Mets led the East by a game with a 13-10 record. Even now, at three games under .500 (albeit on May 9), this team is a hot stretch away from sitting back atop the mountain.
The Phillies (21-15) and Braves (18-19) are well within striking distance and both have their respective weaknesses themselves. Again, now’s the time.
It’s a very long season, but setting the overall tone by winning more games than they’re losing — especially with 13 consecutive divisional games ahead of them — can go a long way in raising the confidence of the New York Mets back up to respectable levels.
With the starting pitching this team employs (3.86 ERA, 3.98 FIP, 8.42 strikeouts and 2.22 walks per nine innings over the Mets’ last 13 games), as well as it’s slowly-evolving, yet incredibly talented bullpen, the foundation is here.
The offense has been hit or miss. After ranking sixth in the majors in wRC+ (118) from Opening Day through April 17, the Mets have put up a 76 weighted runs created plus rating since (27th in MLB over that span). Something’s got to give.
This lineup is too talented to continue to be mired in slumps that extend over 20 at-bats and can’t keep relying on Jeff McNeil as the only consistent bat in the lineup.
Wilson Ramos cannot continue to slash .227/.295/.282, plain and simple. And for goodness sake, could you put a darn ball in the air, Mr. Buffalo, sir?
Ramos’ 63.2% groundball rate is currently worst in baseball by a healthy margin (Starlin Castro of Miami is next-to-last with a 59.5% mark).
Michael Conforto is 4-for-his-last-25 with seven strikeouts. Pete Alonso was stuck in a nasty little rut before his 3-for-5 night on Tuesday in San Diego. Brandon Nimmo snapped an 0-for-28 funk with his RBI double in the same game.
If this is rock-bottom, we’ll take it. But it’s time to pull ourselves up by our cleat-straps now, boys. Big couple of weeks ahead.
