A struggle to find highlights at midpoint of lost season
MIAMI — Halfway home. Or halfway to hell. The Mets completed the first half of their season of disaster Sunday with a 5-2 victory over the Marlins, avoiding being swept by a team that has torn it all down.
After 81 games, the Mets are 33-48 following an 11-1 fool’s gold start. Here are just a few of the lowlights.
GM Sandy Alderson had to walk away from the team because he is battling cancer for the second time. The Mets are being run by the Three Tenors, John Ricco, J.P. Ricciardi and Omar Minaya.
Yoenis Cespedes missed his 44th straight game with a hip injury and there is no timetable for when he will return.
Mickey Callaway continues to feel his way through his first time in the managing game, making the jump from pitching coach to being front and center for a dysfunctional franchise with deep deficiencies that must be addressed no matter how uncomfortable it is for the Mets and their beaten down fans.
The defense continues to be abysmal. The Mets made three more errors Sunday, though Steven Matz picked up his teammates.
On the positive side for the Mets, it really can’t get any worse and there is a top draft pick in their future next year. Here is something else: After Saturday’s 5-2 loss to the Marlins when Jacob deGrom lost a 2-0 lead he announced to the media:
“I’m tired of losing.’’
All those wanting deGrom to be traded to the Yankees read that to mean he was pleading to be traded to the Yankees.
Before Sunday’s game, deGrom, pitching coach Dave Eiland and Callaway met for about 10 minutes in the visiting manager’s office at Marlins Park.
Eiland told Th e Post the meeting went well and both he and Callaway re-emphasized how important deGrom is to the Mets’ future.
To deGrom’s credit, it is about time someone came out and said how difficult this losing has been on the team and that it must stop. If the Mets are ever to break this cycle of bad baseball, it has to come from within. The culture must change and deGrom is a leading voice in the Mets clubhouse.
“I am tired of losing, everybody feels that way,’’ deGrom told The Post Sunday.
“We’re al l disappointed,’’ Matz concurred. “We had higher expectations.’’
DeGrom is not tired of the Mets, though, and as much as some people want him to switch New York teams don’t count on that happening even though Brian Cashman has pointed out that he has a good relationship with Minaya. That is a little gamesmanship by Cashman.
“We go all the way back to the ’ 90s together,’’ Minaya said with a smile.
Eiland and Callaway are convinced that for the Mets to turn it around it has to start with the continued development of this pitching staff led by deGrom. Noah Syndergaard is still sidelined with a f inger injury, but will go to Port St. Lucie to pitch in a simulated game Tuesday. DeGrom remains the heart and soul of the staff. Zack Wheeler has made strong strides and Matz pitched well Sunday, going 5 ¹/₃ innings, allowing one run on three hits, walking two and striking out six and not blowing up after not cleanly f ielding opposing pitcher Dan Straily’s bunt that scored the Marlins first run, making it 3-1.
On April 25 against the Cardinals in St. Louis such a play caused Matz to fall apart and he could not get out of the fourth inning. This is progress. Matz is having more success with his changeup, keeping it down in the zone, making his inside running fastball that much more effective.
Matz raised his record to 4-5 and his ERA dropped to 3.46. The lefty got two big strikeouts in the second and fourth to get out of trouble.
“In St. Louis when I threw the bunt away it kind of snowballed on me,’’ Matz said. “This time it didn’t. That’s the biggest [improvement] evaluating myself this year.’’
Cal l away was i mpressed wit h Matz’s change in temperament.
“In these challenging times you start seeing results,’’ Callaway said.
One positive in an extremely negative first half of the season.