Just Mets

The Mets lost to the Cubs by the score of 6-1 tonight in Chicago. Here are my takeaways from tonight’s loss…

A good debut for Noah Syndergaard.

Syndergaard was great for five innings tonight. He had an electric fastball, and great command of his curveball and change-up. His curveball was particularly wicked with darting movement away and late from the right-handed hitters.

He was plagued by yet another miscue on the infield however. With two outs and nobody on in the third, he induced a routine groundball to Daniel Murphy, and he simply took too long to make the throw, and Kris Bryant beat out an infield single. Syndergaard got a little shaken, and walked the next two batters. He managed to get out of it, but needed an extra 18 pitches to do so, pitches he should not have otherwise thrown in that inning.

It didn’t hurt the Mets at the time, but the extra pitches resulted in an elevated pitch count in the sixth inning, at which point Syndergaard hit a wall and immediately allowed three runs.

Even so, this was a great and very promising debut. He put his entire program together and was firing on all cylinders for most of the night. He has nothing to be ashamed of. He fell victim to the two things which have plagued the Mets so much lately: a lack of offense, and poor defense. The pitchers just can’t pitch well enough when these are the problems plaguing them.

The offense is pretty bad.

Five singles tonight. Two runners in scoring position, and they happened in the eighth and ninth innings respectively. That was that.

At some point, it can’t be a slump. And right now, it may not be a slump the Mets offense is in. It could very well be the way this group is, which means David Wright and Travis d’Arnaud couldn’t come back quick enough.

What’s worse is they’re trying to do too much at this point. They’re being overly and unnecessarily aggressive at the plate, swinging at way too many pitches outside the zone, and like tonight with Curtis Granderson, there’s a lot of over-aggressive base running taking place. In tonight’s game, Granderson decided to go first-to-third on a hit to left field by Murphy in the fourth inning, and he was out by very large margin.

This may sound harsh, but their offense just isn’t that competitive right now. It doesn’t matter who Terry Collins puts in the lineup, either. Nobody among the eight primary position players is hitting very much, and the bench hasn’t done anything all year.

It’s very frustrating to watch right now…

Oh, the mistakes…

That’s what bothers me the most about this game, and it’s happened way too much this season.

The offense is what it is, as I said. But, Murphy’s mistake in the third inning indirectly affected what happened to Syndergaard in the sixth inning. He should have entered the sixth with 18 fewer pitches under his belt, but because Murphy was too slow in throwing Bryant out in the third inning, the situation was different and most definitely changed the complexion of the evening.

And, that doesn’t include Granderson’s mental mistake which cost the club a baserunner in the fourth inning…

It’s tiring, it’s frustrating, and it’s costing this club way too much and too often. They just become magnified with the lack of offense day after day and because of the lack of offense, they simply cannot happen. And for the most part, they’re occurring among the same people most every time…

Other notes from Tuesday:

Kris Bryant went 3-for-4 with a home run and a triple tonight. He’s 4-for-6 with two home runs and 3 RBI in this series.

The Mets went down 1-2-3 five times tonight.

After starting the season 13-3, they have gone 7-10 since.

Alex Torres allowed three walks and a run in the seventh inning – he has now allowed six walks in 1 2/3 innings over his last three starts.

The Mets are 7-10 on the road this season.

The Mets have scored three runs or less in 11 of their last 14 games – they are 6-8 over that span.