After last night’s 5-4 loss to the Braves, the Mets are now 10 games under .500 for the first time this season and a season-high nine games out of first place.
Terry Collins‘ plan is to attack the next eight games which includes five more against first place Atlanta.
“So the idea is to go out and win four of the next five. You’ve just got to hang in there. We can’t tuck our heads between our legs and feel bad for ourselves.”
A frustrated Collins had high praise for the Braves who won their 17th one-run game while the Mets lost their 20th one-run contest.
“There’s a reason why they’re winning,” Collins said about the Braves. “There’s a reason why they’ve won. They do have a knack for it. Those are the kind of players they have over there. Those guys, Freddie Freeman and Jason Heyward and Justin Upton, they’re tough in the clutch. They’re very tough.”
“It takes confidence. It takes an approach at the plate to use the field. I mean, you see Freddie Freeman all the time getting hits the other way, Chris Johnson getting hits to right field. It’s something we stress and talk about all the time — and that is use the field to hit, especially when you get deep into a count, behind in the count, where you’re not going to get something to drive maybe. You’ve got to use the field to hit. It’s the same stuff we’ve talked about all year. It hasn’t changed.”
This ship is sinking fast and any hope of relevancy this season keeps slipping away with every mounting loss.
Meanwhile, Collins continues to do the same things while expecting a different and better outcome. As I said yesterday, he has this team playing not to lose rather than playing to win. The pressure to perform – or else – is swallowing everyone up.
Nobody is having fun on this team, except for Daniel Murphy who marches to the beat of his own drum and leads the NL in base hits with 105 after blasting his seventh home run of the season. The Mets could use a few more like him, and yet he’s likely the number one candidate to be traded right now. If nothing else, this has been an interesting rebuild to watch these last four years.
Quotes courtesy of ESPN New York.
