WASHINGTON — This time last year, the Mets were the talk of baseball. They looked as though they were running away with the NL East.
Now, they limp into Washington to face the lowly Nationals, a team that has all but been out of postseason contention since Opening Day. However, the Mets (18-20) have only won two more games than the Nationals (16-21). They’re 3-7 in the last 10 games, 4-13 in their last 17 and they’ve lost their last five series, marking the first time they’ve lost five straight since 2012.
“It doesn’t matter where you are in May,” Pete Alonso told the Daily News recently. “It matters where you’re at for Game 162.”
While this might true, this dismal early-season stretch has left many wondering what happened to a team that won 101 games last season.
The circumstances are different this year and though the roster was constructed to model the team from last year, some of the personnel is different as well. And it seems that aging by one year has made all the difference for critical members of the 2023 team like right fielder Starling Marte, left fielder Mark Canha, third baseman Eduardo Escobar and, most troubling, right-hander Max Scherzer, who was scratched from his last start with neck spasms.
But it’s Scherzer’s own experience in dealing with adversity early on in a season that has helped the Mets retain some optimism. Scherzer was a part of that 2019 Nationals team that started so slow that there was speculation that manager Dave Martinez could be dismissed only a third of the way through the year. They went on to win the World Series.
On Memorial Day of last year, the Atlanta Braves were 23-26 and sat 9.5 games back from the NL East lead. The Philadelphia Phillies were 21-28 and 11.5 games back. The Milwaukee Brewers led the NL Central at 32-18.
We all know what happened from there: The Braves played an insane second half to overtake the Mets and win the division during the final week of the regular season, the Phillies went on to win the NL pennant and the Brewers didn’t even make the playoffs.
The Mets think they can take lessons from these teams.
“We can’t let a certain amount of games let us get discouraged no matter what part of the season we’re in,” Alonso said. “So yeah, losing can be discouraging, but also, that’s the adversity that I talked about in spring. There are going to be times when certain guys may not be healthier, certain guys are going through a tough time on the mound or on the plate or whatever. Guys will go through some tough times.”
The starting pitching staff is going through the toughest of times right now. The most glaring issue is their inability to pitch deep into games, which then forces the bullpen to shoulder the load. The starting staff has pitched only 185 2/3 innings this season, tied with the Miami Marlins for the fourth-fewest amount. They’ve had to use 23 pitchers this season, the second-most in the league, because of injuries, doubleheaders and just plain ineffectiveness.
The problem starts in the first inning. The Mets have been outscored 34-9 in the first inning this season.
Oftentimes the pitchers settle in after those first-inning blowups, but with bloated pitch counts in the first inning, they can’t make it into the seventh inning. The Amazins are 5-18 when their opponents score first but 13-2 when they’ve scored first.
All of this is magnified by the Mets’ recent offensive struggles.
“It’s a tough mindset to pitch in,” manager Buck Showalter said Thursday after the Mets’ loss in Cincinnati.
The Mets have a combined 0.5 pitching fWAR, the second-worst mark in the league. Their -15 run differential would suggest that they aren’t in terrible shape offensively, but the Mets lineup is built to “pass the baton,” so to speak. The baton is getting dropped an awful lot right now.
The good thing is that there is still time to pick it up.
“It’s going to be really exciting at the end of the year when hopefully, we’re looking back,” Alonso said. “We’ll be like, ‘Man, remember that? That was tough, but look where we are now.’”
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