Lame-duck Mets drop sixth straight as Orioles finish sweep

BALTIMORE — Steve Cohen made himself clear recently when he spoke about his intentions for and expectations of the 2024 Mets in what is shaping up to be a transition year. He said in part, “I don’t want to roll a team out there we’re going to be embarrassed by.”

It’s a low bar, but a bar nonetheless.

He did not express the same sentiment about the rest of this season.

To finish a horrendous week, the Mets lost to the Orioles, 2-0, on Sunday afternoon.

They went 0-6 and got outscored 39-14 on a road trip through Kansas City and Baltimore. They haven’t won since July 30, two days before the trade deadline.

The victor that day? Justin Verlander, now the Astros’ returned ace.

At 50-61, the Mets are a season-worst 11 games under .500. They are 1 1⁄2 games ahead of the Nationals in what has become a tight fight for last in the NL East.

“We’re just doing the best we can with what we got,” Pete Alonso said.

Choose your preferred adjective to describe the Mets’ recent behavior: helpless, hapless, listless. A sense of ennui has infected the clubhouse in the aftermath of their deadline sell-off, a signal from ownership and the front office that the rest of this season no longer is a priority . . . and that next year might not be, either.

General manager Billy Eppler, who had said he was considering traveling to Baltimore for this series, instead went to watch Double-A Binghamton and the organization’s new prized prospects, according to Showalter.

The major-leaguers, meanwhile, are having a bad time. The lineup Sunday featured five players who were with Triple-A Syracuse for part (and in some cases most) of the season.

“You feel bad for them. They’re going through it,” manager Buck Showalter said.

“Regardless, it has nothing to do with you, it’s about them. It’s always about the players. I don’t care who it is. I’ve talked to [recently acquired reliever Phil] Bickford twice in the last two days in my office, just about different things, trying to get to know them.

“Things shouldn’t change. They need to have some consistency from the coaching staff and the manager and the trainers. At times like this, you’re looking for things in your life that are consistent, you can count on. I want us as a staff to be that.”

In a wild effort from Orioles righthander Kyle Bradish, who walked five (and struck out five) in 4 2⁄3 innings, the Mets totaled only four hits. The lone extra-base hit: Mark Vientos’ wasted leadoff double in the ninth.

The Mets had at least one baserunner in every inning against Bradish. Alonso twice grounded into inning-ending double plays. When he worked a walk to load the bases in the fifth, forcing Bradish out of the game, DJ Stewart faced lefthanded reliever Cionel Perez.

Stewart, who for some reason was the cleanup hitter, grounded out to end the inning.

Lefthander Jose Quintana held the Orioles (70-42) to two runs in six innings-plus. Both runs scored on defensive miscues, though they were not registered as rulebook errors.

In the fifth, Rafael Ortega misread and whiffed on his attempted sliding catch of Jorge Mateo’s line drive, which rolled to the centerfield wall. Mateo wound up with a triple.

Then Vientos bobbled Adley Rutschman’s grounder to third, erasing any shot he had of getting Mateo at home.

With runners at the corners and nobody out in the seventh, second baseman Danny Mendick fielded a ground ball from Ryan O’Hearn. Mendick was supposed to throw the ball home to get the lead runner and save a run, Showalter said, but did not.

“He knows he had a play,” Showalter said, “and he made a mistake.”

By Tim Healey

timothy.healey@newsday.com@timbhealey

Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.