Here come the Washington Nationals… In 18 days they’ve climbed back from eight games behind the first place Mets to within a half game of the top spot.
How did they do it? They’ve won 13 of their last 17 games. Next week they get their top offensive star back, Anthony Rendon, who started baseball activities on Friday. Yes, that’s right, they’ve accomplished this dramatic turnaround without him.
Meanwhile in New York, the Mets are reeling. They’ve dropped five straight games including their series opener on Friday night at Citi Field against the MLB worst Milwaukee Brewers. As a matter of fact, the Mets have lost 13 of their last 16 home games against the Brewers.
“I think everybody needs to take a deep breath,” Sandy Alderson said before Friday’s loss.
“The fact is that we need to swing the bats a little better and keep in perspective what happened… We need to calm down a little, and get back to work.”
Apparently Wilmer Flores didn’t get the memo. His ninth error in the fourth inning now puts him on pace for 41 errors this season. But let’s not hang these last two weeks of incredibly awful baseball on one player. This recent suckitude has been a top-down team effort.
The Mets were shutout for the third time this season and their three hits tied a season-low. They have scored three runs or less in 13 of their last 17 games.
The usually dependable Bartolo Colon had a bad day, but I’d bet the farm he’ll bounce back the next time we see him.
What really irked me the most last night was not that we lost, but how we lost and to whom we lost. Kyle Lohse, really? He of the Mile High ERA Club shut us out for eight innings, walked none and struck out eight?
I’m sensing an environment of gloom in that dugout. There was no life to the team last night, in fact I’d say it was the worst I’ve seen them this season. A sloppy game defensively, paired with poor pitching, and an offense that couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn to save their life – or Terry’s job.
With almost 25 percent of the season in the books the numbers are scary to look at. The Mets rank 25th with 130 runs scored, 26th with a .235 batting average, 28th with a .353 Slugging Pct., 27th with a .657 OPS, and 27th with just 79 extra-base hits.
Of course the Mets have been without David Wright and Travis d’Arnaud for most of that. But can you imagine the enormous pressure that will be on those two when they finally get back? It’s gonna be tough.
These last two weeks has gotten everybody down. But maybe Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard can recharge this team over the next two games and we can get this rut behind us. As fans all we can do is hope for the best.
(Photo by Howard Simmons, Daily News)
