Big-Spending Mets Reeling After Being Swept By The Low-Budget Pirates

No team could use an off day than the New York Mets.

So, the Mets were happy that Monday provided a break in the 162-game MLB schedule. They certainly needed a day to get away from baseball following a miserable weekend in Pittsburgh.

The Pirates swept the Mets in a three-game series. The Pirates outscored the Mets 30-4 despite being in last place in the National League Central and having the fourth-worst record in the major leagues.

To illustrate how badly the Mets’ pitching staff was beaten up, consider that the Pirates entered the series as the lowest-scoring team in baseball, averaging 3.26 runs per game.

“There’s a big-league team on the other side,” Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor said. “Got to tip our cap to them. They did a really good job. They outplayed us. They pitched better than us, they hit better than us, they ran the bases better than us, they played better defense.”

What sets baseball apart from other sports is that anything can happen over the course of three days. Yet it was jarring to see a team with a $ 92 million payroll beat up on a team with a $ 326 million payroll.

Mets Have Lost 13 Of Last 16 Games

Getting swept in Pittsburgh, though, is just the continuation of what has been an awful stretch for the Mets. They have lost 13 of their last 16 games to go from having a 5 1/2-game lead in the National League East to trailing the Philadelphia Phillies by 1 ½ games.

“There’s a sense of, we’re frustrated, we’re not winning, but at the end of the day, it’s just part of the adversity that we’re dealing with right now,” Lindor said. “We’re going to stick together and continue to play as hard as we can to come out of it, and hopefully, once we are out of it, we don’t go back to something like this.

The Mets certainly have the capability of playing well. They were 45-24 before slumping a potent lineup that includes Lindor, left fielder Brandon Nimmo, $765-million right fielder Juan Soto, and first baseman Pete Alonso at the top of their order.

Mets Starting Rotation In Shambles

However, the Mets’ starting pitching is a mess, with the latest blow coming last weekend when right-hander Griffin Canning underwent season-ending surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon. Canning had been a revelation in his first season with the Mets, going 7-3 with a 3.77 ERA in 16 starts a year after having a 6-13 record and 5.19 ERA in 32 games with the Los Angeles Angels.

The Mets are also missing left-hander Sean Manaea (strained oblique) and right-handers Kodai Senga (strained hamstring) and Tylor Megill (sprained elbow). Manaea has yet to pitch this season after being re-signed to a three-year, $ 75 million contract in the offseason and was close to returning before developing bone chips in his left elbow.

“We’ve got to continue to fight through it, and we will,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza. “Obviously, we’re not getting the results, but we also understand that every team will face adversity, and here we are. It’s up to us to continue to work, continue to fight. It (stinks) going through it, but we’ll find a way.”

Mets Plan To Rely On 2024 Experience

The Mets, though, know they are in a better place this year than they were at one point last season. They had a 24-35 record through June 2 but rebounded to qualify for the postseason and win in the first two rounds before losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.

Nimmo and the rest of the Mets feel they can draw on that experience to pull out of their slide and make a run at their first World Series title since 1986.

“As a team, we’re not playing very well right now,” Nimmo said. “There’s mistakes all over the field you can point at. It’s not one thing. It’s not (just) pitching, it’s not hitting, it’s not defense. It’s all of them at different times. We’re not putting it together right now. You’re not going to win games in the big leagues when you do that.

“I think I’ve been here long enough to have seen a June like this, maybe a little worse,” Nimmo said of his time with the New York Mets. “To pull out of it, we’ll look to build on that one step at a time.”