If the New York Mets are truly serious about playing baseball in October, they better first start by winning games in August — and sadly, they are not.
Losers of 10 of their last 15 games, the Mets look nothing like the playoff bound team they portend to be. Everyone in that clubhouse can sure talk a good game, but at the end of the day the only thing that matters are wins, and currently, those wins are sorely lacking.
It’s going to take a full team effort to get this ragtag bunch to the finish line, but it appears that nobody has the appetite to do what it takes.
The Mets have been in a fog since the All-Star break, squandering all kinds of pitching performances that should have gone in the win column and didn’t. That’s not a recipe for success.
The Mets desperately need someone to lead the charge, and Pete Alonso would be the logical choice to champion this team.
However, it’s pretty difficult for your message to resonate when you’re only batting .188 in August. It’s gonna take a lot more than fiery words and a positive disposition to win the division or garner a wildcard spot.
It doesn’t get any easier Sunday, when the Mets will face a very familiar foe in Max Scherzer. The former Nationals right-hander is having another typical dominant season, he leads the league with a 0.890 WHIP to go with a 2.67 ERA and a 12.1 K/9.
Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports
Scherzer should feel right at home tonight in Citi Field where he has enjoyed some incredible success, and that of course, spells some more bad news for the Mets. He owns a 9-2 record at Citi with a 2 04 ERA, 0.881 WHIP and a 35.1 percent strikeout rate.
Right-hander Noah Syndergaard came out of hibernation this weekend, to blast MLB and ESPN for selecting tonight’s game for Sunday Night Baseball, resulting in an afternoon game being pushed to a 7:00 p.m. start.
Syndergaard has a good gripe but also points out just how grueling the next 24 hours will be as the Mets ready themselves for a “do or die” West Coast swing with three games against the Giants, four against the Dodgers, and nary a day off. No rest for the weary.
What scares me right now is that the Mets have too many built-in excuses for failure. Add to that a sluggish offense, a thin rotation, and a shaky bullpen, and you can see just how precarious things are for the Amazins.
The next eight games– including tonight’s contest — will tell us if this Mets team are truly contenders or pretenders. All teams suffer through adversity, injuries and bad luck, but the great teams typically overcome all these challenges and don’t make excuses. They find ways to win.
Too often the Mets look like a team that’s trying to avoid losing instead of a team trying to win. That’s not a formula for success. I hope the Mets can prove me wrong. We’ll all soon find out.
Stay safe, my friends and Let’s Go Mets.
