It may have been Dinosaur Education Day at Citi Field but it was the Mets’ offense that was extinct, as they fell to the White Sox in the rubber match in the series, 2-1, in 13 innings.
- As if the lack of offense wasn’t infuriating enough, the White Sox took the lead in extra innings when a relief pitcher hit a double, advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored on a sacrifice fly.
- The offensive lull ruined a fine effort from Jacob deGrom, who struck out 10 batters over seven innings. The only run deGrom allowed was a solo homer to Todd Frazier leading off the seventh inning. It was a long inning for deGrom, who sat in the dugout for awhile as the Mets loaded the bases but did not score in the bottom of the sixth.
- The Mets had 13 walks in the game. They hit into five double plays and managed just seven hits in 40 ABs. Michael Conforto was 0-for-6 with four strikeouts and a GDP.
- Mets travel to Miami to take on the Marlins in a three-game set starting Friday night.
I had the game up while I was working this afternoon, and then through half of dinner– given that time investment, if they were going to lose, I wanted it to at least be memorable. And the trip around the bases by Albers did not disappoint in that regard…
Who could ever have imagined things getting worse for the Mets after sending Eric Campbell back to the minors? Hard to believe.
Hey Sandy, how’s that “swing for the fences in case you hit it” philosophy working out for you? You realize that it was a contact hitter that had a good power streak that carried you through the playoffs, right?
Maybe this team needs to re-evaluate its approach and let its talent flow? They are a well assembled unit that must do more with offensive opportunities than they have. Despite all the “fire power”, I think has really, really underperformed.
Oh Gus,
I’m sure SA will just double down on the HR power. We are a high calorie low nutrition offense that does not eat often…
We are as bad a team as last July.
Chris, I vehemently disagree with that. Our results are the same. However, you cannot compare lineups! Last year’s lineup had Murphy, Duda, Campbell, Tejada, Lagares, Granderson, Mayberry/Kirkkkkk, and Plawecki. This year’s lineup has a legit MVP in Cespedes, Granderson, up until now Wright, an improved Plawecki (albeit barely), a very improved Lagares/Conforto, Cabrera, and Walker (who can’t be too much worse than Murphy was last July).
Remember when Collins was asked last year to move Granny down in the lineup and his answer was, “and who would he drive in?” One of the reasons I can’t stand Collins is because he craps on his players. He bullies the young player with disrespect, but that’s for another article.
But, no team is perfect. However, I don’t see many teams getting less out of their overall talent than the Mets. Sure, life is great when they are on a pace for 420 homers but what happens when the well dries? Besides the fact that many homers are still solo shots and they aren’t leading the league in scoring although they lead in homers, this team still relies on pitching.
How many times must this team strand a small army on the bases? Can we please look to hit the ball? You never know, singles add up also.
Plawecki, DeAza, Kelly, Campbell, Flores, Rivera…
Add a diminished DW and Grandy and well, this team is bad offensively. Today Collins said this team is not a small ball team a cannot deliver small ball tactics. It needs to get back to HR. And it sucks. Every pitcher knows they are swinging long which makes it easy to expand the zone. It’s not rocket science.
Nearly lead the league in HR, yet near the bottom of runs scored. And scoring runs matters. Incidentally we are near bottom of the Bigs in BA with RISP. The offensive approach is a near complete failure. By the ASG we will sub .500
He said that? Why is he still here? The name of the game is scoring runs. We will take them via the bunt, the homerun, the steal of home and downright bribing the umps. That’s what that f’ing idiot should have said!
From Adam Rubin’s article this evening:
“We’re still going to be OK,” Collins insisted. “We’ve just got to grind out something on the offensive side. We’re going to be fine. Our pitching is going to come. And, as we know, as we saw last year, when that pitching gets going, we get rolling.”
I rest my case. This guy is lost; a complete fool; an i-d-i-o-t. He needs a shutout every night?
I actually have zero problem with that comment. He manages the 25 men on the roster. What else is he supposed to say to the media? For the most part, I agree with what he said.
Jimmy, his pitching gave up one run and has been very good overall, the top ERA among starters in MLB. How much more does he want them to do? Please tell me so that I may share your serenity.
Gus, part of the issue is that is the team Alderson & Co. Gave him. He’s a baseball guy and can’t be any less frustrated than any of us seeing pitcher after pitcher, player after player *completely unable* to bunt a guy over or even figure out how to get a sac fly. Alderson prefers the minuscule percentage of getting a timely HR over getting a much higher percentage hit. That’s not on Collins. When he speaks, I want to scream as bad as you do, but he’s just taking the bullet for his boss. In his presser, he mentioned the team has to *start* being capable 2 strike hitters etc…it is June and now they have to start learning how to be professional hitters? That’s on him.
Completely follow your reasoning Chris, and agree. I was referring to Collins exclusively. I already have spoken many times about how this roster has no speed.
I looked up Alderson’s 1989 world champion A’s. Henderson had 52 steals, Lansford had 37 steals, Stan Javier and Polonia also had double digit steals. The team as a whole hit 127 homeruns for the year: Big Mac 33, Parker 22, Canseco was hurt and had 17. Where does Alderson get his HRs win championships mentality from?
My guess is steroids!
3 regulars injured. 3 regulars slumping. Backups not doing much. Cabrera and Walker can’t carry an offense.
Conforto ended May with a horrendous .242 OBP and .591 OPS and June doesn’t start off any better. Not going to score a lot of runs when your coldest hitter of the month is hitting ahead of the guy who is smacking HRs at an absurd pace.
Teams have figured him out and he hasn’t adjusted back, so at some point we might want to consider easing the brakes and moving him down a bit.
Also,the Mets are still hitting HRs at the same rate as in April, but RBIs are way down. Now that i think of it, it seems like in April the HR blasts seemed to be a lot more of the 2 to 3 run variety while in May they are mostly solo shots.
The answer to my question is probably going to result in an answer of “somewhere in the middle” but did the Mets hit an abnormally high amount of non-solo shots in April or did they hit an abnormally high amount of solo shots in May?
My guess is that the Starting Pitching continues to surge…. They will then point to very substantial moves with their ED Lineup holes. I believe they will address at least 1 corner IF spot,,,, and Catcher. I don’t believe the Bus will wait long for Wright and Duda. Loney is a very quick Test Balloon.
Big Surprise with Flores sitting Today….Ty Kelly won the Coin Flip with EC….Did they also flip a Coin for Starters between Flores and Kelly???? I found that extremely odd…Irritating—what don’t I know?
The offense was structured to have a home run hitter in spots 1-8 in the lineup. The last week, Duda, Wright ,TDA and Flores were out with injuries. That is around 80 home runs in a season to make up. The replacements are three 25th men on the roster, Campbell,Kelly and Reynolds. Granderson is ha ving an off year and Conforto and Cespedes are in a slump. Two players that they were expecting something of from the bench, Flores and Plawecki, have added nothing. They are a hurt team and the two bench players that they relied on failed them. The Mets for the next two months leading up to the trade deadline are going to have to tread water. The only possible impact player in the minors is Herrera (and it is debateable to call him an impact player this early in his career) and his promotion is only viable with a disabled Wright. The pitching is going to have to be superb not to lose too much ground to the Nats.
I agree with all of this. They need to hang tough through this difficult stretch.
The pitching has to carry this team.
Any team where they expect HR from the 1-8 slots is a sad construction. It places undue and unnecessary stress everywhere else on the team. Pitching around these guys is easy and few people care about giving up a couple solo HR if the team is incapable of scoring otherwise. It gives pitchers zero room for error. It adds stress to every pitch knowing the only answer is zeros. One of the worst aspects we see is that late inning comebacks are rare because the desperation is extraordinary, and so the K zone expands, and so we swing at 60′ pitches in the dirt. Add the fact that no power hitter destroys evenly in time and so then we get droughts and DL replacements aren’t good and the perfect storm of unable to score happens. The Mets are 29th in RISP, yet near the top in HR, and near the bottom in runs scored…it doesn’t work. And pitching cannot save this. It’s very disheartening.
Well, we’ve talking about how this offense is boom or bust all year. With so many injuries, it’s going to be more bust than boom. With the bullpen cracking it’s making things worse.
This all has a very eerie 2015 feel as we get closer to the trade deadline. Who is the panacea this time? Duda is out for a long time. Wright is barely holding on to his career. d’Arnaud is not someone to count on to stay healthy and he wasn’t very good before going down anyway.
It may be a rough early summer again, except we can’t expect the Mets to hit gold on a trade deadline acquisition this time.
That pretty much is how I feel too Rob.
Okay, agreed. It would be nice to have a less one-dimensional lineup. I’ve always loved faster, more athletic players in general. The speed translates directly to defense.
However . . .
1) We know that the Mets GM for the past five years always favors offense over defense, plate discipline over speed, and power in general.
2) More significantly, as much as you harp on it, who are the players you are calling for? Who did you want this winter or in years past? Almost always, the speed/athletic positions are SS, 2B, and the three outfield spots. Conforto, Cespedes, Granderson. Who are you dumping? Curtis? How do you achieve that? At SS, the Mets went with Cabrera. He’s not fast. What was the option, who was the guy? Is Walker the problem?
In the abstract, sure, fine, you are correct. But the real-world solutions are not readily evident to me. If you’ve got some, Chris, I’d love to read them.
At this point, De Aza is the only guy who semi-qualifies as the type of guy you want. Kind of. He’s relatively fast for this team at least. Unfortunately, he can’t hit LHP at all, so a very poor idea of a backup corner outfielder for Conforto & Granderson.
I just think this is the reality of the roster. Without significantly changing the pieces, the style of play cannot possibly change.
If healthy, the offense is good enough to win with this pitching. You are currently witnessing some major players out of the lineup and a very, very poor bench.