Mets Hope to ‘Keep This Thing Afloat’ in the Second Half
The Los Angeles Dodgers arrive at Citi Field on Friday to begin the second half of the baseball season. The go to is the primary check in an important 15-game run for the Mets that may take the crew to the Aug. 1 buying and selling deadline — and decide its future.
The season started with sky-high expectations, however what now? Can the Mets make up sufficient floor to get the inexperienced mild from the crew’s proprietor, Steven A. Cohen, to make a push for the playoffs? Or will the alternatives be all white flags and explanations?
Buy? Sell?
“It’s on us if we want to keep this thing afloat,” Max Scherzer, the veteran right-handed beginning pitcher, mentioned in San Diego earlier than the Mets scattered for the All-Star break.
“Don’t let the Metropolitans get hot,” outfielder Tommy Pham playfully warned earlier than leaving the Mets’ 6-2 loss to the Padres on Sunday within the first inning with a sore proper groin.
Attempting to discern precisely what the Mets are, or could be, in 2023 stays an train in creativeness, if not in suspended disbelief.
Are they the crew that discovered its stride and gained six video games in a row by way of final Friday?
Or are they the crew that closed the season’s first half — technically, 90 video games are down with 72 remaining — with a two-game dropping streak to the Padres?
“The mathematics worked OK on the road trip,” Manager Buck Showalter mentioned of the Mets, who gained 4 of the six video games at Arizona and San Diego. “But some of the math is working against us.”
At 42-48, the Mets are fourth within the National League East, nearer to last-place Washington than to first-place Atlanta. The Braves had the M.L.B.’s largest divisional lead on the break: They had been eight and a half video games forward of Miami (and 18½ forward of the Mets). In every of baseball’s 5 different divisions, the lead is 2 video games or much less.
With that in thoughts, the Mets heard Cohen loud and clear when he mentioned in June throughout the newest homestand that he was a “patient guy,” that he didn’t plan on firing anyone (no less than, not till after the season) and that if the crew’s play didn’t enhance by the commerce deadline, “I’m not adding.”
“One thing we’ve got to do is just go out there and play good baseball so that the people above us look at this team and believe that they can win and go try to get an extra piece that pushes us across and try and win the whole thing,” Scherzer mentioned. “But it’s up to us to go out there and play well. We’ve got to play good baseball.”
He added, “We can play with anybody in the league.”
There is a time to say that, and there’s a time to do it. The saying half has been prolonged longer than anyone with the Mets cares to confess. Time is brief for the doing half. The Mets’ payroll, roughly $348 million, could show unforgiving. The payroll of the terrific Baltimore Orioles ($68 million) would match snugly into the chasm between these of the Mets and the Yankees, who’ve the sport’s second-highest payroll at an estimated $279 million.
“He’s educated in what’s happening,” shortstop Francisco Lindor mentioned of Cohen, including: “You respect that, you appreciate that, and you continue to work as hard as you can day in and day out. And when the time comes, let them deal with whatever they’ve got to deal with. But we do understand that when you don’t play well, people lose jobs.”
Lindor paused, then mentioned: “We have a great group here. And the better we play, the longer we stay together.”
The Mets gained 101 video games a yr in the past and misplaced the division title on the season’s last weekend when Atlanta swept them to win a tiebreaker.
After 90 video games final summer season, the Mets had been 56-34 and led the N.L. East by two and a half video games. Most of the important thing items are again. They added the ace Justin Verlander. Francisco Alvarez, a rookie catcher, has been a productive addition. Yet they’re 14 video games worse than they had been in 2022.
Where did all of the magic go? What occurred to the well timed hitting? The dominant pitching? The reliable protection?
“Usually, when you have veteran teams, you’re consistent,” mentioned Scherzer, who went into the break with an 8-3 file and a 4.31 E.R.A. “And we haven’t been consistent. I think everybody’s kind of got a hand in that. We’ve all been up and down as individuals and therefore collectively.”
Verlander, who’s 3-4 with a 3.60 E.R.A., missed the primary month of the season with a again harm. Scherzer was suspended for 10 video games for violating baseball’s guidelines in opposition to utilizing overseas substances on the ball. First baseman Pete Alonso missed eight video games with a bruised wrist. While he has 26 dwelling runs, his on-base plus slugging proportion is down some 50 factors from 2022.
“Winning is a habit and, also, losing is a habit,” Alonso mentioned.
The dropping behavior hit the Mets onerous in June. They went 7-19 to exacerbate their present play-from-behind predicament.
“There’s always doubt, for sure,” Alonso mentioned about combating by way of the June malaise. “There’s always inner doubt. But also, at the same time, with the doubt, there’s always self-belief. It’s a balancing act.”
The doubt, he mentioned, was not in his teammates “because I know these guys work tirelessly.” He added: “And I know that the talent in this room is through the ceiling. So it’s just a matter of going out there and doing it.”
But Atlanta is threatening to run away with the division. At the All-Star break, the Mets had been seven video games out of the third and last wild-card slot and wanted to jump over Chicago, San Diego, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and San Francisco to get there. The math is changing into more and more troublesome, as Showalter famous.
The Mets are 16-37 when their opponents rating first. They are 4-36 once they path after six innings, 1-38 once they path after seven and 3-43 once they path after eight. Losing Edwin Díaz for the season to a knee harm sustained on the World Baseball Classic harm, however having the sport’s finest nearer wouldn’t change these numbers.
“You are what your record is, right?” Scherzer mentioned.
But there have been moments out West on the journey main into the break that advised the behavior of profitable was inside attain. Carlos Carrasco (eight shutout innings) produced his best begin of the season in Arizona final Thursday because the Mets handed a wonderful Diamondbacks crew its first shutout lack of the season.
Kodai Senga (7-5, 3.31) was named as an N.L. All-Star. Alvarez hit 4 homers within the six video games, together with a game-tying, ninth-inning shot at Arizona that led to a Mets comeback victory. Lindor had a five-hit sport within the desert after having to be hydrated by an IV the day earlier than.
“I think me and him and a lot of us in here are cut from the same cloth,” Alonso mentioned of Lindor. “We’re in it every single day, and we’re in it together. And that’s one of the reasons why I feel like we’re going to do something special in the second half.”
In the Dodgers collection, the Mets have Verlander slotted to begin Friday and Scherzer for Sunday. They’ve acquired Senga penciled in for Saturday.
Things being in pencil is a theme for the Mets.
“Everything fluctuates day to day,” Showalter mentioned. “This don’t mean that and that don’t mean this. We all try to predict the future. It’s when everything changes, that’s the emotional challenge.”
Lindor mentioned: “It’s been an uphill fight, and it seems like right now the road got flatter. It’s going to go uphill at some point, and the important thing is we keep climbing.”
