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Bradford Doolittle
multiple authors
New York–It’s not over, mets fan.
We’re not talking about the 2026 season, but New York’s 12-game losing streak. But you probably understand the need for clarification, especially since Tuesday’s gut-punch loss There was a very lost-hopeful feeling in the cold Citi Field.
after failing to finish minnesota twins Heading into their series opener, the Mets have yet to win a game since April 8. How did this happened? How can this be resolved? can do Should this be fixed?
“We’re all very aware of it, you know,” francisco lindor Said about the skid, which has left his team with the worst record (7–16) in the major leagues. “But at the end of the day … we’ve got to come out and get it.”
Let’s take a look at this round of a dozen losses by going through some of the key stats that went wrong for the Mets early on, and whether the team can turn it around.
6: Mets’ further loss
Tuesday’s collapse was the sixth game the Mets have lost during a streak in which they have held the lead at some point. close to devin williams Has become the embodiment of this trend and, in fact, has hit it hard against the Twins. He faced five batters, retired none, walked three and gave up the last two runs.
Williams entered the contest with the game tied, thus ending with a loss but no save. The blown lead was actually from the starter nolan mcleanJoe was fantastic for most of his outings – but maybe he was left out for a while because the Mets don’t have enough in the bullpen right now.
“Some of our people were down,” Mendoza said of his relief workers. “We knew we were going to push [McLean]. We felt good where he was.”
Before the slide began, Williams — who signed as a free agent this winter — was off to a great start with the Mets. Through April 7, he had a perfect ERA in five outings. In his last three appearances, Williams has allowed seven runs in 1⅓ innings.
How bad did things get for Williams and the Mets in his latest ninth inning? Well, then Williams allowed two runs and the right-hander was pulled with the bases loaded with no outs. Austin Warren came and attacked bravely royce lewis, brooks lee And Byron Buxton.
After the first strikeout, Mets fans chanted “MVP! MVP!” In Warren – a journeyman reliever. When Warren got hit for the third time, you might have thought New York had just won the World Series.
.311: no One clutch batting average, but three joint
That .311 figure would represent a solid clutch batting average, but it’s actually three different measurements added together. So instead of a happy number, it’s a number that makes Mr. Met very, very sad. Those three averages, according to TruMedia:
Runners in scoring position: .161
Two out, runner in scoring position: .094
Late innings, high leverage situations: .056
Eegd! If you’re looking for a silver lining, these stats didn’t get too bad in Tuesday’s loss. Alas, that was mostly because the Mets didn’t muster any hits after the fourth inning – or get anyone on base after the fifth inning.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said, “I thought we had very good at-bats the first four innings.” “After that, they kind of shut us down. We couldn’t get anything else.”
This, too, has been par for the course during the tailspin. In their last 12 games, the Mets have scored a total of eight runs after the sixth inning. On Tuesday, the Twins allowed five runs in those four innings.
marcus semienHas been heavily criticized for his offensive performance recently, actually going 4 for 9 with runners in scoring position during the streak. The average for everyone else is 6 out of 53, i.e. .113.
15: juan sotomissed games
Fortunately for the Mets, Soto will return on wednesday With a left quad strain that has sidelined him since April 3. He has been remembered.
During the Mets’ losing streak, they have scored 1.83 runs per game. Every other team in the majors has averaged at least three during that span. The Mets have scored two or fewer runs in nine of their 12 losses.
This kind of failure can’t be attributed to one missing player, not even a generational hitter like Soto, but the stats with/without him are shocking:
As of April 3: 4.38 runs per game (15th in MLB)
since: 2.67 runs per game (last in MLB)
Those figures include three games won by the Mets immediately after Soto was injured. Now he’s coming back, but the concern after Tuesday’s loss was that the Mets don’t want Soto to feel like he has to do it all on his own.
“I hope everybody doesn’t put all the pressure on him, because that would be a little unfair,” Lindor said. “But I know he’ll help us a lot; he’s one of the top three hitters in the league.”
Lindor is right: It can’t all be on Soto. But his return is at least a sign that better things may be ahead for the Mets’ offense. God knows, there aren’t many other such signs right now.
90.7: Mets’ preseason win baseline
The Mets head into Wednesday at 7-16 and yes, that’s the worst record in baseball, but it also means they have 139 games left to play.
Since samples remain small, it’s reasonable to think that, beneath the surface of the current struggles, the Mets will remain who we thought they were before the season started. In my projection system, the last preseason simulation had them at 90.7 wins, or a .560 winning percentage. For the sake of argument, let’s say that’s what the Mets actually are. What does it mean?
Simple arithmetic tells us that if the Mets win at a .560 clip the rest of the way, they finish with 85 to 86 wins. Under the current format, that’s good enough for a playoff spot… at least in a few years.
138: Teams before the Mets will lose 12 in a row
0: Number of teams that made the postseason
This is some bad history to consider, especially for the Mets. Salary over $375 million.
“Hey, we’ve got a lot ahead of us here, but we’ve got to go out and do it,” Mendoza said. “Obviously history will tell you otherwise. But you still believe in the players. You still believe in the people in that room.”
It seems simply impossible that a team with so much projection-based promise before the season could be eliminated from the championship race by the third week of April, but now the Mets have the tough task of fighting back from a skid that no playoff team in the history of the game has overcome.
It’s going to be a lot.
“Every day is a new day, right?” Williams said. “We have a chance to win a game every day. Right now, everyone knows the situation. It’s kind of like being stacked on top of each other.”
The troubled Mets need to start piling up wins instead of losses before it’s too late.
