Just Mets

The Mets have lost four straight games–in lackluster fashion–and are just 5-7 in the month of May. A 5-7 stretch isn’t exactly something to go crazy about, but it’s especially frustrating when in that time the Mets as a team have a 2.44 ERA, which ranks 1st in the majors and isn’t even really close–the Angels are 2nd with a 2.93 ERA.

Another alarming note is that the Nationals, who trailed the Mets by eight games in the standings on April 27th, are 12-4 since then, have won nine of 13 games this month (despite an MLB-worst 4.26 ERA in May) and have cut that division lead to 1.5 games in just 17 days.

We’ve seen this from the Mets before, as they infamously blew a 7.5 game division lead in 17 days to the Phillies in 2007. Now granted, this occurred in September, and for the 2015 Mets it’s only May–they have a lot of baseball left to get back on track. The point, however, is that over the years we’ve seen this franchise raise the hopes of a fanbase, then, when all things are said and done, miss the postseason–as they’ve done for the last eight straight years–and finish under .500, as they’ve done for the last six consecutive seasons.

This is a team that is clearly on the rise, with a rich farm system full of pitching, which is now rising to the top. This team has Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Rafael Montero and Noah Syndergaard–two aces and two young, highly touted pitching prospects who have spent time in the major leagues, with Steven Matz waiting in the wings at Triple-A and Zack Wheeler who will return next season from Tommy John surgery. By all accounts, they’re stacked with pitching, and yet they’re still losing these games, sometimes in painfully familiar ways…

On Wednesday, Matt Harvey was terrific on the mound, pitching seven shutout innings when this team desperately needed him. The problem? The Mets scored a single run, the bullpen gave it back immediately after Harvey exited and the lost on a walk-off walk in the 9th. In the following game when the Mets finally did score some runs, they blew a 5-1 lead and lost on a late-inning wild pitch that scored a run.

Losses like this hurt, and are not something that good teams string together, either. We’ve seen the Mets lose a plethora of painful games in excruciating ways in the past, i.e. the Luis Castillo dropped popup, Eric Brunlett unassisted triple play, D.J. Carrasco walk-off balk, Justin Maxwell walk-off grand slam and so on and so forth.

In June of 2012, the Mets were eight games over .500 and in the midst of a playoff run–they finished 74-88. Last season the Mets were 15-11 at the end of April, only to go 11-18 in May and finish off the season 79-83.

Today, the Mets are 20-15 and in first place, both of which are things that any fan would have been excited to hear in Spring Training. It’s different, however, when this team was once 13-3, coming off the highs of an 11-game winning streak, and are 7-12 since and 9-15 overall outside of that winning streak.

This team has been trending down over the last three weeks, and it has some fans seeing flashbacks of years past. Even with David Wright, Travis d’Arnaud, Bobby Parnell, Jerry Blevins and Vic Black all waiting to return to the disabled list–along with Zack Wheeler and Josh Edgin who are out for the season–and now former closer Jenrry Mejia serving an 80-game suspension, it’s still disheartening to see the team perform the way it has of late.

Even with a bad taste in our mouths, the most frustrating part, I think, is that we’ve seen what this team is capable of. Their starting pitching is tremendous (and seemingly only getting better), their bullpen is good enough, their new closer Jeurys Familia is lights out and when they score runs, it’s enough. The Mets have lost 15 games this season, but just two of those 15 have come when they have scored four or more runs.

If this team can make changes, whether it be a calling somebody up from the minor leagues, making a bigger move and making a trade or simply just a change of results, something has to change and soon. As this team has done in the past, the Mets have given this fanbase hope early in this season. Now, unlike those seasons past, they have to change the ending.