A long way to go for Sandy’s team
LOS ANGELES — The Mets’ lack of athleticism, pitching woes and front-office stubbornness are all part of the real challenge facing a 31-38 team.
Combined with the injuries, it has all caught up to Sandy Alderson’s club as the Mets trail the Nationals by 10 ¹/2 games in the NL East.
The Mets are in an even worse spot for the wild card, 12 games back in the loss column of the rampaging teams in the West, where the Dodgers, Rockies and Diamondbacks all have just 26 losses.
On Monday night at Dodger Stadium, the Mets ran into the major league’s rookie sensation not named Aaron Judge.
Cody Bellinger, who’s father, Clay, was a Yankee, blasted two more home runs in the Dodgers’ 10-6 win to give him 21 home runs over his first 51 games, the most in MLB history over that span.
The Mets, who are built around the home run, hit four, including two by Jose Reyes.
Bellinger is all of 21. That’s the same age as Amed Rosario.
Despite all the issues surrounding his team, Alderson is holding out hope the Mets can make a run.
“We are [far] back in the wildcard race, but we are way behind only two teams,” Alderson told The Post. “It’s not like we have to climb over eight teams. That’s something that has to happen over the next several weeks, we’ve got to start picking up games.’’
Essentially the Mets still are holding out hope they will beat the lesser teams.
The Mets — from Alderson on down — have been a cocky team from the start and that came with the territory when Noah Syndergaard was healthy and running around like a comic book character.
They need to check out the reality of the situation and where they now stand, especially on the mound.
They’ve lost five of the last seven games and have surrendered 9.2 runs per game in those losses. No team can hit that many home runs to overcome such a deficit. That’s the reality. They Mets hit four home runs against Clayton Kershaw, the most he ever has surrendered in a game, but it wasn’t enough.
Bellinger blasted a three-run homer against Zack Wheeler in the first and a solo shot in the second as Wheeler had his second straight terrible outing.
The Dodgers (a season-high 17 hits) are getting another terrific season from Justin Turner, who was thrown onto the scrap heap by the Mets and Alderson. Turner (four hits) hit a two-run home run in the second and a run-scoring double in the sixth. In 434 games with the Dodgers, Turner is batting .308. Pretty, pretty good as Larry David might say. Because of David Wright’s injuries, third base has been a difficult position for the Mets to fill.
Turner is following the same torture-the-Mets path as former teammate Daniel Murphy.
The Mets are all about home runs, and Gavin Cecchini hit the first home run of his major league career in the fifth, a tworun shot off Kershaw. The Mets also got a solo shot by Jay Bruce.
Alderson always has believed in the power of the home run from the time he drafted Mark McGwire in 1984, and this year is no different.
With the Mets losing so many strikeout pitchers to injury, though, it is even more important now to improve the defense.
Alderson said the Mets still have good players and he is putting the pressure on those “good’’ players to produce.
The Mets are facing an easier road ahead. Once they get past these four games against the Dodgers, it’s on to San Francisco, where the Giants continue to slump and onto Miami, where the Marlins are having another putrid season.
Alderson is going to have to adjust how he puts together a team. Jeff Wilpon, the Mets COO, also is going to have to adjust, too. The plan needs to change. After a World Series visit in 2015 and a one-game postseason visit last season, the Mets now are staring into the abyss.
It’s a long way down.