Just Mets

The Mets are limping home after an embarrassing four-game sweep at the hands of the Cubs at Wrigley Field this week.

They lost five out of seven on their road trip, seeing their lead in the National League East dwindle down to a mere 1 1/2 games.

Gut check time. And, Terry Collins is calling upon his veterans to get it together, fast.

“To be honest, that’s why some of those big guys are out there,” Terry Collins said after Thursday’s loss in Chicago. “This is when they need to step up. This is when the Michael Cuddyers and the [Daniel] Murphys need to step up to where all that leadership we talked about, this is the time we need it most.”

Collins spoke about the injuries and how youth has been forcefully injected into the plan at an early stage as reasons for the team losing 12 of their last 19 games. In fairness, the Mets have already lost ten big leaguers to the disabled list, and in three of their four losses to the Cubs, they were playing without Juan Lagares, and they were short in the bullpen in two of those games as well.

This is not the team which was intended to be on the field 35 games into the season, and there’s really no telling when they will start to resemble the team Sandy Alderson had mapped out on his whiteboard in January. 

It has also led to people playing in unfamiliar roles, specifically in the bullpen, and Collins making unusual strategic decisions which all appeared to back fire this week.

But that doesn’t excuse the performances of people who are here like Michael Cuddyer, who went 2-for-15 in this series,  and has hit .173 with three extra-base hits and six RBI while striking out 14 times in his last 21 games, dating back to April 21. 

Cuddyer knows his performance is hurting the team, and knows he has to get better.

“It starts with me,” Cuddyer said on Thursday. “You’ve got to perform, there’s no question about that. And quite frankly, for my part, I haven’t gotten the job done up to this point.”

No, he hasn’t. But he isn’t the only one, either. 

There’s Curtis Granderson too who, while he’s shown signs of coming around lately, inexplicably has a .362 slugging percentage with 27 strikeouts in 139 plate appearances this year.

There’s John Mayberry Jr., who was signed to hit left-handed pitching. Despite driving in two runs against LHP Travis Wood on Thursday, he had been 0-for-his-last-21 at the plate and 3-for-23 against southpaws heading into the game and is still hitting .121 with ten strikeouts in a shade over 30 at-bats for the year.

“Unacceptable,” Collins said about the strikeouts for his team which has lacked so much power this season.

And then there’s the poor defense, the mental mistakes, and the lack of execution, whether it’s a sac bunt, situational hitting, or just plating a run with an out altogether. All of this only compounds the slumps for the veterans and the growing pains for the younger guys.

On Thursday, Wilmer Flores committed his eighth error on a poor throw to first base in the fifth inning, costing the Mets two unearned runs. There was the 2-for-22 with runners in scoring position with 21 runners left on-base in the four games, Then there was the passed ball that glanced off of Anthony Recker’s glove in the seventh inning which allowed the go-ahead run to score, and the reality of where this Mets team has arrived at after three weeks of mostly miserable play.

Sure, David Wright and Travis d’Arnaud will help lengthen the lineup upon their return, at least give the Mets the starting eight behind their pitching staff that was envisioned for this club for 2015, and maybe give people a mental boost or two. But a) there is no timetable for that, and b) there’s no magic wand they can wield to make everyone else play better, either. There could still be a lot of baseball to be played between now and when these two get back.

Injuries only help explain the inexperience and the shifting roles, but not the poor play. At some point, the Cuddyer’s, Granderson’s, Murphy’s, Mayberry’s and countless others will have to clean up their acts, start hitting, but most importantly just play better than they have and get the energy which once existed with this club back.

Once again, gut check time.