Just Mets

It’s hard to even comprehend the level of terribleness the Mets offense has reached through 79 games in 2015. Even the rebuilding teams from 2011-2014 didn’t seem to have an offense that was this bad.

Even if it was statistically worse, however, this is even more unacceptable, because this was supposed to be a season when the stakes were higher, and winning trumped everything else.

The Mets have now scored three runs or less in 56 percent of their games in 2015, two runs or less in 38 percent of their games, one run or less 25 percent, and shutout an astounding 11 percent of the time in 2015.

The citizens of Panic City are well aware of those marks, and given the Mets are approaching the half way mark of their season in the middle of their most difficult stretch of games, it’s hard to argue with the position of those citizens, who simply want more from their franchise.

For the second night in a row, the Mets were shutout by one of the clubs they need to move past in a wild card race which may soon be out of reach if the offense remains non-competitive at the big league level. They have not scored since the eighth inning in the second game of their doubleheader with the Reds on Sunday.

“When you’re not scoring, the one thing we talked about for three days was trying to do something different,” Terry Collins explained late Wednesday after another dismal loss. “Whatever we’ve been doing hasn’t been working.

“We’ve gotta flip-flop some guys somehow, just to do nothing but shake it up a little bit,” Collins said.

Unless there are better players showing up to the ballpark Thursday morning, Collins can reshuffle the lineup, sub in whoever he wants, and so on. It’s not going to change.

Collins at least deserves a commendation for his effort to get the run he thought he needed on Wednesday. He attempted a suicide squeeze in the bottom of the eighth with Ruben Tejada at third and Daniel Murphy at second base. He had Darrell Ceciliani – a good bunter historically – hit for John Mayberry Jr., who has struggled against Cubs reliever Pedro Strop in his career.

It seemed like the Mets might actually get the single run they needed after a brilliant effort from Bartolo Colon, and an air tight defense behind him: the ingredients a team struggling to hit needs to win.

But not only could the Mets not get the bunt down and lost Tejada, they embarrassed themselves in the process.

Tejada got caught in a rundown and was tagged out after he reached third base with Murphy standing on the bag, who did the right thing by advancing to third base.

The problem is, Tejada was tagged out after he reached third, and inexplicably ran past third, which technically meant Murphy ran past Tejada, and the Cubs smartly tagged both runners.

Fortunately for the Mets (at least for a moment), the umpiring crew couldn’t get the call right and ruled Murphy safe at third.

He should have been out, which saved the Mets from an ultimate low and embarrassment. At least for a day.

“We gave [the squeeze] a shot, it didn’t work,” Collins said. “We’ll continue to press forward and try to come up with some answers.”

As for Murphy, he has done what he can do since returning from the disabled list on Tuesday. He has three hits in two games since being activated from the disabled list, two of which are doubles.

The problem is, the rest of the Mets have seven hits in the 20 innings in this series.

“If I had the answer, if [hitting coach Kevin Long] had the answer, we would give it,” Murphy said. “But come out tomorrow and battle again, that’s all you can do.I know you guys are asking, and I’ve got nothing for you. Just come out here and keep grinding out at-bats, that’s all you can do.”

The scary reality of their offensive situation is, it’s actually getting worse. And, the specter of the Dodgers and Giants over the next week – on the west coast – is looming very large as a possible nail in their coffin, if it hasn’t been sealed already.

The 1.7 runs per game the Mets have scored over their last 13 games is a low in what has been an epidemic for the club for most of the year. It’s simply a representation of what has needed to be done for the last two months of the season – to get better players.

But the truth of the matter is the Mets offense isn’t a Yasiel Puig, a Troy Tulowitzki, Ben Zobrist, or a Carlos Gomez away from a competitive lineup. Sure, they’d be better and certainly more interesting if they had one of them. Of course, they’d be better if they had two more below average hitters, a sad truth to the Mets poorly constructed offense.

But this is an offense lacking competence from their first baseman, two outfielders, their middle infielders, and their catcher. A far cry from what was believed to be the case in Spring Training.

And, if anyone begins pointing the finger at the manager, point it a few degrees above him for this mess. It’s not his fault, even if he may pay the price for it.

That’s the reality. One player can’t fix six holes, or a season for that matter.