The Mets got their teeth kicked in Friday afternoon in Wrigley Field. It was a 12-4 Cubs win, but the story here comes via the losing dugout. That was the ninth straight Mets’ loss. To make matters worse, they aren’t just losing. They are getting crushed. During the course of this losing streak, the Mets have been outscored 56-16. That’s just brutal. They’re being outscored by an average of 4.44 runs per game. Friday was another laugher.
This is now the longest Mets losing streak since 2004, when they lost 11 straight from Aug. 28-Sept. 8. The longest streak in franchise history is still a ways away at 17 (in 1962, obviously). Still, on Saturday, the Mets will look to avoid the 14th 10-game losing streak in Mets history.
One might recall that the Mets collapsed down the stretch last season. On June 12, they had the best record in baseball at 45-24, but they went 38-55 the rest of the way. They were 28-37 after the All-Star break, 11-17 in August and 10-15 in September. They still had a great shot at making the playoffs, but an eight-game losing streak in September had a hand in keeping them out.
As a reminder, the Mets have the highest payroll in baseball for the fourth straight season.
Do the math here, right? If this losing continues, at some point, owner Steve Cohen is going to ask president of baseball operations David Stearns what’s going on and why he’s wasting so much money on a terrible product. Before the ax falls on Stearns, the fall guy generally would become the manager.
Mets owner Steve Cohen asks fans to ‘hang in there’ as team drops seventh straight game
Dayn Perry
Is Carlos Mendoza’s job in jeopardy? Not yet. It’s too early and the sample is too small for that. It’s only 20 games. Then again, the Mets (7-13) were already five games out in the NL East before Friday’s loss and 20 games is more than 12% of the season. Circle back to the collapse last season and there would be justification to call for a big change like firing the manager.
Friday, though, Stearns had his manager’s back.
“I think Mendy’s [Mendoza] doing a really good job,” Stearns mentioned (via ESPN). “I think he’s putting our players in a position to succeed. He’s enormously consistent.”
The Mets have not been consistent. They haven’t hit, they’ve given up far too many runs at times and have kicked the ball around on occasion, such as we saw in the fourth inning Friday when a two-out error by first baseman Brett Baty led to a run.
The Mets do have some key injuries, most notably to Juan Soto, one of the most important players in baseball. Still, this simply isn’t good enough. Every team deals with injuries and most do so better than this.
For now, it appears Stearns isn’t looking to scapegoat Mendoza. If this level of play continues through next month, though, all bets are off.
