Mets shifting 'focus' to get back on track
Maybe a day off will help the Mets. Hitting the reset button certainly didn’t.
After manager Mickey Callaway called a team meeting Friday night — and had a motivational speaker visit the team Saturday afternoon — the Mets’ free fall only accelerated, with the team scoring one run in the final 23 innings of its four-game home sweep at the hands of the Cubs.
Less than 48 hours after Callaway changed his mind, and called a team meeting because the team was “playing the game the wrong way,” the Mets made more Little League mistakes, with Steven Matz allowing a runner to steal home, and Jay Bruce failing to call off an infielder on a pop-up turned sacrifice fly, in Sunday’s 2-0 loss.
“I guess we need to make some adjustments in what we’re focusing on on a daily basis,” Callaway said Sunday. “If we have to go out and work on cutoffs and relays and pop-ups and [pitchers fielding practice], then that’s what we’ll do instead of being on the field hitting.
“Maybe we need to shift our focus a little bit more.”
The Mets’ (27-30) best opportunity to stop the season from slipping comes in a two-game set against the major league-worst Orioles (17-41), beginning Tuesday at Citi Field.
Though the Mets have lost nine of their past 11 games, and six straight games in Queens for the second time this season, the Orioles enter on a seven-game losing streak, and have gone 7-23 on the road this year.
“It’s definitely time to get going,” Brandon Nimmo said. “It’s definitely time to put the gas pedal down because we definitely have to win some games to stay in contention here, and put ourselves in a good spot, where we can hopefully rattle off a bunch of wins. ... Right now, we need to start turning things around.”
Following three games against Chicago featuring left-handed starters, the Mets will also get a break from their struggles against southpaws. The Orioles will open with righthander Alex Cobb (1-7, 6.80 ERA) against Jason Vargas (2-3, 8.53 ERA), before Zack Wheeler (2-4, 5.14 ERA) faces Baltimore righty Dylan Bundy (3-7, 4.46 ERA).
Despite the recent slide, which took the team from a franchise-best start to below .500 for the first time this season, the Mets have received repeated solid efforts from their starters, who have combined for a 2.48 ERA over the past 16 games.
Vargas has even provided reminders of why he was signed as a free agent, following a disastrous start to the season. In two of his past three outings, Vargas has picked up a win, and thrown five shutout innings, including his start Wednesday in Atlanta.
“I think Vargas has shown signs that he’s becoming more of, the reasons we got him in the first place,” Callaway this weekend.
If the Mets can’t stop their tailspin against the 28th-ranked pitching staff, and 29th-ranked offense, the bleeding will become even harder to stop. The Yankees come to Queens over the weekend, and the Mets then leave for a 10-day road trip.
“We have to do our jobs as individuals in here to make sure it doesn’t snowball,” Jay Bruce said. “We haven’t been playing good baseball, and we have to play better. That’s just the bottom line. There’s no magic potion to it. You just have to do a better job of getting the job done.
“We have to use our past experiences and what we’ve been through in our career in order to keep the mindset going in the right direction. ... We have essentially four months left, and we have to make the most of it.”