Just Mets

The Mets were blown out again by the Cardinals on Wednesday by the score of 9-0 at Citi Field. Here are my takeaways from the loss…

Ugly.

Bartolo Colon has been about as ineffective as I can remember over his last three starts. As badly as Jon Niese got shelled last night, Colon made that effort look good tonight.

It’s really just one problem: That two-seamer is getting too much plate too often, and an 85-88 mph fastball in that spot is pretty much batting practice for any big league team, let alone the Cardinals who are the best offensive team in the game.

Ultimately, if Colon can straighten the command out with his two-seamer, he should be fine. But with the way the offense is going, that needs to happen as soon as his next start on Monday against Philadelphia.

Hopefully, the Mets are watching the Cardinals bat this week…

Because, their approach to hitting is precisely what the Mets talked about all spring and during the month of April, and precisely what they are not doing at the plate right now. St. Louis attacks strikes, and spits on pitches (strikes included) they can’t hit. And, it’s consistent top to bottom in their lineup.

Yes, their lineup is much more complete than the Mets is at the moment. But that doesn’t mean the Mets can’t execute better than the way they have over the last month. I mean, the offense has gone from good, to bad, to expectedly unwatchable on a daily basis.

Right now, the Mets pitching needs to be absolutely flawless in order to be successful. That’s not fair to them, because nights like the last two nights are going to happen, hopefully to a lesser degree than this, of course. But if the team is down three or four runs, they have to be able to have a chance. Right now, they’re averaging about three runs a game, so they don’t have a prayer in those situations. They’re a station-to-station, uncreative offense who needs three (or four) hits to score a run.

Right now, they’re lucky to get four hits in a game – that’s all they got tonight.

Something needs to change.

I’ve said it a couple of times this week that there’s A LOT of baseball to be played between now and whenever both David Wright and Travis d’Arnaud are back in the lineup. They’ve seen their lead in the division evaporate completely, the quality of play is flat out poor on both sides of the ball, and this has gone on for an extended period of time.

There’s a lack of life, energy and confidence on display – it feels very much like 2012, 2013 and the first half of 2014, and that’s not exactly representative of all of the talk and swagger this team had from February – April. It’s time to do something.

Other notes from Wednesday:

Colon’s ERA has risen to 4.85 ERA over his last three starts – he has a 9.98 ERA over that span.

Colon set a franchise record with 48 1/3 innings without allowing a walk before he walked two batters in the fourth and fifth inning.

It’s the first time since 2007 the Mets have given up nine runs or more in consecutive games.

The Mets did not record a hit after the fourth inning on Wednesday.

The Mets have now scored three runs or less in 16 of their last 22 games, and have scored three runs or less in 23 games this season (they are 7-16 in those games). They were shutout for the fourth time in 18 games this month.

Wilmer Flores went 0-for-4 to end his six-game hitting streak.

Jack Leathersich, Sean Gilmartin, and Carlos Torres combined for 4 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.