The Mets can’t possibly sink any lower than this.
Those were the thoughts of Gary Cohen, the team’s longtime play-by-play broadcaster on SNY, who lamented the state of affairs during the eighth inning of the second half of Thursday’s doubleheader against the Tigers before the team rallied for a 2-1 win in the bottom of the ninth.
“Nobody in the ballpark. 0-5. Hitless through 7. It feels like rock bottom,” Cohen said.
Things would get at least a little brighter in short order, as Harrison Bader got the team’s first hit of the game in the bottom of the eighth, and then Pete Alonso hit a solo home run to tie the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth.
Later in the ninth, Tyrone Taylor singled in Brett Baty for the walk-off victory, the Mets’ first of the season.
The Mets opened the season getting swept at home by the Brewers and lost the first two games of their series against the Tigers.
“It’s just something you’ve got to overcome,” outfielder Brandon Nimmo said after the sweep at the hands of Milwaukee. “Whether we lost three games in a row now or lost three games in a row in June, it would be the same questions. We just have to focus on the next game. There’s gonna be bad times during the year, we might as well deal with it at the beginning.”
The opening half of Thursday’s doubleheader was particularly painful, as the Mets were up 3-0 after five innings but blew the lead and ultimately lost, 6-3, in 11 innings.
Before the doubleheader, new Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was candid about how this season’s sluggish start has caught him by surprise.
“Not the way I anticipated, to be honest with you,” Mendoza said.
“We’ve been through a lot, especially in the first series… You’ve just got to keep going, prepare and lean on the guys and coaches. We’ll get through it.”