THE 'L' WORD
Pitching, hitting disappear as Mets head into break losing five of six
ST. LOUIS — The first half concluded Sunday for the Mets with the kind of thud that is so emblematic of their season.
Choose the “L” adjective to best summarize this team, which pulls into the All-Star break with eight more L’s than W’s: lethargic, lowly, laughable. All three descriptions fit a team that appears destined to play the final 2 ½ months removed from even the periphery of a playoff race.
In another performance worthy of the nearest Dumpster, the Mets lost 6-0 to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium to mercifully begin the four-day break.
A team once expected to compete for the NL East title is 39-47, with five losses in six games, and showing no signs of the fight needed for a rebound.
“Pretty much the record speaks for itself,” manager Terry Collins said. “No matter, you say we played without a lot of big pieces. We are not happy with where we are, so we have got to use this time to reassess what we have to do in the second half, but hopefully we start getting some of the pieces back.”
Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey and Jeurys Familia are the biggest pieces of which Collins spoke, and yet all three remain nowhere close to returning from the disabled list.
But the Mets’ healthy pieces aren’t contributing nearly enough. That includes Yoenis Cespedes, who went hitless in three at-bats and is 6-for-45 (.133) without a home run in his last 11 games. The bullpen remains a crapshoot, and even Collins’ dependable starting pitchers have endured seesaw seasons.
“Hopefully we can get some rest and come out strong the second half,” said Michael Conforto, who went 1-for-4 in his first start since leaving the disabled list and will represent the Mets at the All-Star Game on Tuesday.
For the second straight day, Cespedes declined to take questions from reporters.
Last year the Mets got healthy and went 27-13 over the final six weeks to secure a wild-card berth, but with so little firepower, it’s hard to envision an encore performance.
“There is no sugarcoating it: It’s quite the uphill battle,” Jay Bruce said.
Steven Matz (2-2) produced his first real clunker of 2017 on Sunday, allowing five earned runs on seven hits with one walk over 4 ¹/3 innings. Offensively, the Mets barely touched Lance Lynn and the Cardinals bullpen, finishing with only three hits.
“We’ve got to get some energy back,” Collins said. “We’re not playing with much energy right now and I am hoping the rest will help us out.”
The lefty Matz had been a bright spot in the rotation since arriving June 10, following two-plus months on the disabled list with elbow discomfort to begin the season, but the Cardinals pounded him early, using two home runs to seize control.
Luke Voit’s homer in the sixth inning against Seth Lugo was the Cardinals’ eighth blast in the three-game series.
But maybe that doesn’t sound so bad considering the Mets surrendered 15 homers in a four-game sweep at Dodger Stadium last month.
Paul DeJong’s two-out homer in the fourth sent the Mets’ afternoon spiraling and Yadier Molina’s RBI single the following inning finished the line on Matz.
Tommy Pham hit a two-run homer in the third that buried Matz in a 3-0 hole. Matz walked the leadoff hitter Matt Carpenter and then watched Pham take a fastball the opposite way, clearing the right-field fence.
Carpenter doubled leading off the game and scored the first run on Jedd Gyorko’s RBI ground out.
Lynn (7-6) allowed three hits over seven innings and walked only one batter. It came a day after Adam Wainwright allowed one run over seven innings against the Mets.
“When you don’t pitch, the games are ugly,” Collins said. “If you don’t hit, they even look worse.”