Mets in trouble deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep!
Dodgers smack 7 HRs to hand Amazin’s 6th straight loss
The Mets are not sinking, the manager of Team Titanic insisted, at least that’s how the words coming out of his mouth sounded Sunday.
Mickey Callaway actually was saying that his flailing team hasn’t been “syncing” the various aspects of the game or translating them into any wins lately, which might be the most Captain Obvious statement the person at the helm of a capsized vessel ever has uttered.
Which all leads us to the latest disheartening defeat of the Mets’ two-month free fall, a series-sweeping 8-7 loss in 11 innings in which they tied the franchise record by coughing up seven home runs on a purported bullpen day — started improbably by Jerry Blevins — necessitated by yet another injury, this one to veteran starter Jason Vargas.
Admit it, you expected the worst all day once you heard that nugget before the game. Because this is what the Mets have been doing for weeks, for months, and in many cases, years, training their tortured fan base to plan for the worst throughout the majority of its baseball rooting existence.
Similar to consecutive 10-8 losses in Colorado earlier in the week, seven runs -including a game-tying blast by Kevin Plawecki in the eighth inning -- were not enough to apply the brakes to a skid that now has been extended to 4-18 since the Mets last were over .500 at 27-26 on May 30.
“We swing the bats, we give up seven homers. If we pitch and swing the bats good, our defense isn’t quite there,” Callaway lamented, still searching for answers. “It’s kind of been the whole season.”
From ownership to the front office to the manager to the medical staff to the players to Mr. Met all the way down to whoever severely overcooked my chicken on Sunday, take your pick of who is to blame for what is surely headed toward being remembered as yet another wayward and wasted season out by Flushing Bay.
The alarm GM Sandy Alderson had sounded on Friday about the Mets needing to start posting wins “almost immediately” before a second consecutive summer selloff commences continues to ring hollow. The team he constructed was swept yet again at Citi Field, dropping its record there to an astonishing 13-24, including a single home victory in their last 14 tries.
Sure, the Wilpons deserve plenty of criticism for mostly going halfway or worse with what has amounted for years to a mid-market payroll – around $150 million this year -- but Alderson clearly didn’t belt any home runs last winter with any of his free-agent expenditures, either.
Adrian Gonzalez, already gone. Todd Frazier, injured, and mostly terrible since a hot start. Jay Bruce, terrible, and now injured. Anthony Swarzak, injured and now terrible. Vargas, injured, then terrible, and now injured again.
To that end, it’s unfathomable that Vargas reported a bum calf on Wednesday and the Mets didn’t have a starter available for them to turn to four days later.
Instead, Callaway handed the ball to Blevins for the first start of a 12-year MLB career, and the situational lefty quickly provided two shiny baseballs as souvenirs into the left-field seats by yielding back-to-back homers to Kiké Hernandez and Max Muncy to start the game.
“They explained to me the situation and I said I’d love to, man, whatever helps the team,” Blevins said afterward. “I felt like at almost 35 years old, it’s the perfect time to transition to the starting rotation. I didn’t want to put my team behind the first two hitters. But we battled, just unfortunately we were on the losing end.”
Yes, again. Swarzak was victimized for two homers, including the second of the day by Cody Bellinger, as the Dodgers extended their lead to 7-4 by the eighth, before Plawecki evened matters with a three-run shot against exMet reliever Erik Goeddel in the bottom half.
“We know what type of team we have…But the season ain’t over tomorrow,” Plawecki said. “We can either sit here with our heads down or come in ready to work and try to make this season something. I think everybody wants to do that. I don’t think there’s anybody in here that doesn’t think we can’t still make the playoffs…We’re definitely not gonna cash it in.”
Cue the Jim Mora video, but playoffs? Who would settle simply for those occasional good fundies Keith Hernandez is always harping about on SNY?