Nothing else matters if Mets can't keep ball in the park
Adam Ottavino of the Mets reacts after surrendering a ninth-inning home run against the Cardinals at Citi Field on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
There’s a heavy cloud of blame that follows these Mets, and it’s permeated every crevice of their home clubhouse.
Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil have taken plenty of flak. Daniel Vogelbach has full YouTube rants dedicated to his offensive woes. Buck Showalter routinely gets taken to task for his lineup decisions and his overreliance on underperforming veterans. Billy Eppler didn’t do enough. Mark Vientos should have gotten more of a shot. Even Steve Cohen — you know, the ones fans christened “Uncle Stevie” — hasn’t been immune.
And while there are elements of truth to it all, you didn’t need to do too much dissecting after the Mets’ 8-7 loss to the woeful Cardinals on Sunday.
It was the four home runs. The 1,561 feet of hurt that victimized Carlos Carrasco and the bullpen. The long ball has been victimizing the entire pitching staff all season long.
The thing is, you can play Vientos all you want. McNeil can slap his singles all over the ballpark and Vogelbach can base-on-balls his way into fans’ hearts.
And still, it’s hard to win when you’ve given up 100 home runs in 71 games, second-worst in the National League to the Rockies, who at least have Coors Field as an excuse.
On Sunday, it was two homers by Nolan Arenado, one by Paul DeJong and another by Jordan Walker — courtesy of Carrasco, John Curtiss and Adam Ottavino, who allowed Arenado’s tiebreaking solo shot in the ninth.
So is there a connecting theme to all these long balls?
“No,” Ottavino said tersely.
OK. In that case, is there anything the Mets can do about it? Because the season very literally hinges on this pitching staff and its 4.68 ERA (third-worst in the NL).
“If you go back through the pitches, you’ll see bad pitches not thrown where they were trying to throw them, not being able to get some sequencing where they can do some things,” Showalter said. “They’re mistakes . . . Tough thing is that our guys have [been successful at that in the past]. They go through periods and then they go back. If I had some concrete thing — like [it’s an issue with] the pitch clock or something like that? I wish it was that simple. But everyone is playing under the same rules.”
That’s a pretty dark reality, but one the Mets have to reckon with: Pitchers simply aren’t executing the way they should, and hitters are making the most of it. Ottavino said it was the first home run he’s allowed to a righthanded batter this year and the first he’s allowed on a sinker in two years. Carrasco said he was struggling to find his fastball command. Both said some variation of the same thing: This is correctable, an anomaly.
And while that very well might be the case, time is running out on that front.
The Mets had a golden opportunity this weekend. They were coming off a stirring win over the Yankees and were facing the worst team in the NL. Instead of feasting, they became the sum of their weaknesses, dropping two out of three. They’ve lost 10 games this season in which they’ve scored six runs or more after losing only four such games all of last year.
There are some key culprits: Max Scherzer hasn’t pitched to his usual dominance and has given up 10 homers this year. Carrasco has allowed 10, too. Opponents are scoring at will, and that, combined with a decidedly middling offense, has led to a seemingly endless swoon.
“You continue working and never give up,” Carrasco said. “This is hard, baseball . . . We’re going to have some ups and downs, and that’s what’s happening now. Everyone is going to come together at the end.”
The Mets certainly hope that’s true, but until then, they have to continue on this quixotic journey toward figuring out exactly how to keep opposing hitters in the park.
It could be mental. Certainly the pitching staff is feeling the pressure and likely is pressing, as anyone would in that scenario. There is the loss of Edwin Diaz anchoring the bullpen, along with Scherzer’s uneven season and Justin Verlander’s late start. There’s every chance there are some mechanical snafus — something for pitching coach Jeremy Hefner to parse.
Whatever the case, it’s a pitching staff infection — one that, if not soon corrected, might very well prove fatal.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
