Alderson expecting break out

Sandy Alderson hasn’t lost the faith.

While acknowledging the team hasn’t played anywhere close to expectations, the Mets general manager — who is tweaking the Mets’ injury protocol process — also said he believes improvement will come from a roster that he thinks is far better than it’s 16-23 record.

“A lot of the story [is] to be written,” Alderson said before the Mets’ 3-0 victory over the Angels Friday night. “Our goal is to perform better in the last three quarters of the season than we have in the first quarter.”

It would be hard to perform worse. The Mets, losers of seven straight games, began play Friday night with the fifth-worst record in the National League, 8 ¹/2 games behind the Nationals in the NL East and just a 2 ¹/2 games out of the cellar. Their pitching staff has a 5.13 ERA, the worst in the sport.

Obviously, injuries have contributed to the poor play, with 10 key players — David Wright, Noah Syndergaard, Wilmer Flores, Lucas Duda, Seth Lugo, Asdrubal Cabrera, Steven Matz, Yoenis Cespedes, Jeurys Familia and Travis d’Arnaud — spending time on the disabled list, and eight of them still shelved.

Alderson also said the Mets, who have come under fire for how they handle injuries, are making some changes on that front, adding that he will meet with the training staff daily, something he hasn’t always done in the past.

But Alderson wasn’t using poor health as an excuse.

“I don’t subscribe to the notion that the injuries have put us where we are,” he said. “I think there’s a contributing factor there. But there are many players that we have on the roster, that I’m sure if you asked [them how they have played], they would say, ‘Gee, I expect a little more from myself.’ So I think that explains a good deal where we are as well.”

Alderson was preaching patience, and reminding everyone that this team has displayed resiliency before. The Mets reached the playoffs backto-back season for just the second time in franchise history the past two years despite crippling injuries and at times inconsistent play. Earlier this year, after getting off to a 7-3 start, the Mets lost 10 of 11 games, and responded by winning eight of the next 11 contests before this latest skid.

“We had a losing streak earlier in the season. We bounced back from that,” Alderson said. “I expect that we’ll bounce back from this one as well.”