STRUGGLE IS WHEEL'
Nats complete sweep, hand Mets fourth straight defeat
Before the Mets were swept out of their own ballpark Sunday night by the defending NL East champions, general manager Sandy Alderson was asked if there was panic over his team’s recent slide.
“It’s not even the last week of April, is it?” Alderson said, glancing at his watch. “Check with me [Monday].”
Will do.
Props to the Mets for not completely folding after falling into a first-inning hole against Max Scherzer on Daniel Murphy’s grand slam off Zack Wheeler, but their 6-3 loss to the Nationals at Citi Field was more of the same: decent, but not great, starting pitching, a bullpen hiccup and bare-bones offense.
With their fourth straight loss and eighth in nine games, the banged up Mets fell 5 ½ games behind the Nationals in the NL East, putting them in early danger of a premature exit from the division race for a second straight year.
“We’re [19] games in, and it wasn’t a good series any way you put it,” Neil Walker said. “But there is not going to be any finger-pointing in here: We know we need to be better.”
Wheeler, who entered batting .167, had the highest average of the last five hitters in the Mets’ lineup on Sunday as Yoenis Cespedes (hamstring) and Travis d’Arnaud (bruised hand) remained sidelined. Add Kevin Plawecki and Juan Lagares to nose-diving Jose Reyes and sporadic Curtis Granderson, and the Mets’ lineup hardly had an intimidating feel.
Afterward, Cespedes — who was available for pinch-hitting duty — told manager Terry Collins he expects to play Tuesday. The Mets would certainly welcome him for their series against the Braves, with a three-game rematch looming in Washington starting Friday.
“You look down, they weren’t the Mets that they broke [camp] with,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. “But you have to take advantage of that situation.”
Wheeler (1-2) surrendered the bomb on a fastball to Murphy and then pasted zeroes to the score- board over the ensuing six innings, but the Mets couldn’t fully recover.
“I just made that one mistake to Murph,” Wheeler said. “He’s a great hitter. It got me in a hole early, but these guys did a nice job of giving me some runs and trying to get us back.”
Overall, the righty allowed four earned runs on four hits and two walks over seven innings before Ryan Zimmerman hit a two-run homer against Josh Smoker in the eighth that gave the Nationals breathing room.
“The concern is to get healthy, because once we get healthy and get our lineup back in there, I think things will turn around,” Collins said.
Walker’s two-run homer in the third provided proof that a comeback against Scherzer was possible. The two-out blast pulled the Mets within 4-3 after Michael Conforto had delivered a leadoff single.
Conforto homered leading off the game for the Mets to continue his recent torrid play. Both leadoff homers by the Mets this season have been delivered by Conforto, who has led off four times.
Murphy’s grand slam was his eighth homer in 22 games against the Mets and gave him 25 RBIs over that stretch.
Wheeler hit Adam Eaton leading off the game and then watched Trea Turner reach on an infield single. Bryce Harper’s ensuing single loaded the bases for Murphy. Only exacerbating matters for the Mets, Cabrera — playing on a sore hamstring — was in obvious discomfort after fielding Turner’s infield single and received a visit from Collins and trainer Ray Ramirez, but remained in the game.
“Someplace across the line, there’s a nine-game winning streak coming up,” Collins said. “That’s how good this team can be. I do believe we have the ability to take off.”