Hyped staff flopping in disastrous fashion
PHOENIX — This is how you fall into the abyss after two straight seasons of postseason baseball.
The Mets have managed to pull off the daily double of pitching disgrace. Both their starters and relievers went into action on Tuesday night with an ERA over 5.00.
On cue Mets starter Tommy Milone promptly gave up five runs in a 5-4 loss to the Diamondbacks at Chase Field, the Mets’ sixth straight loss. They have lost all five games on this trip.
No team in baseball can lay claim to such pitching slop. Everywhere the Mets turn there is arm trouble, starter or reliever. There are no answers right now. Only losses.
The Diamondbacks winning run proved to be a solo home run by Metskiller Yasmany Tomas into the swimming pool in right-center in the sixth, one night after Tomas delivered the key three-run blast in Arizona’s 7-3 win.
When The Post asked Terry Collins what his conversations are like with pitching coach Dan Warthen regarding all of these pitching issues, Collins responded, “ugly. They’re ugly conversations.
“I got a great relationship with my pitching coaches [Warthen and Ricky Bones]. They do a great job. We throw out a lot of stuff and ultimately the pitchers have got to make pitches,’’ Collins said. “That’s what it is all about.’’
Pitches are not being made and sometimes even instructions are not followed in exact form.
“We’ve had situations where we try to hand out instructions of how to go about things and it’s just got to get executed because I will tell you, Dan has a good game plan,’’ Collins said. “You’ve got to go out and make pitches and they haven’t been making them.’’
Mets starters came into the night with a 5.05 ERA, 29th in baseball, only the Reds were worse at 5.15. Mets relievers came in with a 5.26 ERA, 27th in the majors.
Overall, the Mets’ 5.13 ERA was dead last. No one is close. The Braves are 29th with a 4.75 ERA. The Mets also lead baseball in pitching changes.
“If you don’t get your starting pitcher deep into the game, you’re going to make pitching changes,’’ Collins said. “We’re a team that’s got the likes of Jerry Blevins, he is here because he’s got to get a key out, but if you keep running Jerry Blevins out there an inning at a time, you are not going to have him when you need to get a big lefty out in the right situation. We try to cut him back workload-wise on an individual night so the next day if we need him.’’
This is the definition of a pitching disaster and this all can’t be blamed on injuries. The Mets and Sandy Alderson didn’t upgrade the bullpen over the offseason and are paying the price with Jeurys Familia out after suffering a blood clot in his pitching arm.
Losing Noah Syndergaard was crushing and no one has stepped into the void since Thor went packing with a torn lat. Robert Gsellman has fallen flat on his face. Matt Harvey can’t get out of his own way. Jacob deGrom is searching for command and accuracy. Only the returning Zack Wheeler has been a bright light on the mound.
In five games on this trip, Mets pitchers have managed to give up a stunning 41 runs. The Mets knew they were heading to two ballparks knows as hitters’ paradises but this is ridiculous.
All this bad pitching is putting some good hitting to waste. The Mets lead the majors with a .318 (83261) average with runners in scoring position and they own a .406 on-base percentage with RISP, the highest mark in the majors.
Harvey goes Wednesday in the series finale.
“You get to a point where you don’t sit here and say, ‘I hope I get this’ or ‘I hope I get that,’ ’’ Collins explained of expectations for Harvey, “You just send him out there and you hope he is getting back to what Matt Harvey is, that’s what I’m looking for — improvement.’’
There’s plenty of room for that the way this staff has performed.