David Lennon: Mets' 'embarrassing' six-error nightcap ends ugliest day of season
Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez breaks his bat over his leg after striking out swinging to end the eighth inning against the Cubs in the second game of a split doubleheader at Citi Field on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
By the shore of Flushing Bay, with hundreds of Norwegian soccer fans in the building, it felt like a Viking funeral for the Mets’ season during Wednesday’s doubleheader disaster at Citi Field.
No flaming boats, but Nolan McLean — the one starter the Mets could pin their fading hopes to — was set ablaze by the Cubs, who pounded him for six runs over his final two innings, including a pair of homers, in the opening 10-3 loss. As demoralizing as that defeat was, however, Game 2 was a full-on defensive bonfire by the Mets, who committed six errors -- yes, that’s six -- in a humiliating 10-5 rout that may not officially have ended their season, but signaled it over anyway.
Over the span of a gruesome nine hours, the Mets displayed some of the franchise’s worst baseball in recent memory. They’ve now lost five straight -- giving up 50 runs in that stretch -- and are now 12 games under .500 (34-46) for the first time this season. The doubleheader sweep also dropped them to nine games behind the Cubs for the third wild-card spot, which technically may not be insurmountable on June 24, but certainly gives off that vibe for anyone who has watched the Mets’ futility on a regular basis.
“Embarrassing,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “That last game -- unacceptable. Obviously, everybody’s pissed, everybody’s frustrated. Simple as that.”
As we’ve stated numerous times, Mendoza isn’t necessarily the one to blame. But the Mets aren’t just bad anymore -- they’re clearly getting worse, and Wednesday night was rock bottom. Something has to change. Somebody has to be called out for this dumpster fire. And no one in the clubhouse, coaches’ room or manager’s office is exempt.
Francisco Lindor returned after his two-month absence from a severe calf strain yet must have thought he was still on a rehab assignment in the minors. He booted the first grounder hit to him, by the Cubs’ third batter, in committing the opening gaffe of the Mets’ half-dozen errors. Lindor also went 0-for-5, then later backed away from any talk of leading his team out of the darkness.
“This is a team sport and we’re in it together,” Lindor said. “My job is to play shortstop as best as I can and to be the best version of myself to help the guys.”
Lindor was unable to be part of the solution Wednesday, and he had plenty of help in that department. Every infielder made at least one error in Game 2, with Marcus Semien and Mark Vientos each guilty of two. After Vientos looked like hockey goalie clanging a hard grounder off his glove in the ninth inning, the Citi crowd broke into loud “Pete Alonso!” chants, in memory of the homegrown Polar Bear cut loose by president David Stearns because of his defensive shortcomings. This was a terrible night for Stearns’ run-prevention mantra, that’s for sure, and the six errors were the Mets’ most since 2014.
“Today was just a tough day all the way around,” said Semien, who was booed the loudest. “It became frustrating after Game 1. We wanted to come back out in Game 2 and play well and it just didn’t happen.”
On Wednesday, hours before the opener’s first pitch, the Mets bounced Kodai Senga from a desperate rotation that can’t scrape together five serviceable pitchers on a week-to-week basis. In other words, the best way Senga could help the rotation was by not being in it.
Not only that, manager Mendoza raised the possibility Wednesday morning that Juan Soto could end up on the injured list after leaving Tuesday night’s game with what the team described as “back tightness.” Soto was unavailable for Game 1 and not in the starting lineup for Game 2, but Mendoza said he still was being evaluated (Soto was not in the clubhouse during Wednesday’s media access).
The timing of his back injury is uncanny — it happened on the eve of Lindor’s comeback from his own calf strain, albeit a much more severe grade. When Soto was activated in April, Lindor suffered his injury that same night, and the Mets’ two megastars, whose contracts are worth a combined $1.1 billion, have appeared in only nine games together this season. At this rate, by the time they do make it back into the lineup together, it probably won’t matter anyway. Mentally, these Mets are looking shot.
“It’s not good,” said Sean Manaea, who called his performance “inexcusable” after lasting just three-plus innings in Game 2. “We are playing not up to our capabilities. I don’t think anybody here in this room would say otherwise. We know we’re better than this and just right now we’re playing really, really bad baseball.”
In Game 1, McLean denied that the weight of the spiraling Mets was strapped to his shoulders in Wednesday’s Game 1, but he ultimately fell victim to the same mistakes that routinely sabotage the team as a whole. Jared Young and Francisco Alvarez belted back-to-back homers in the fourth inning to give McLean a 3-0 lead, but he gave it all back in the fifth when a pair of two-out hits set up Michael Busch’s game-tying two-run homer.
To see McLean stumble so badly after cruising along had to be jarring for the Mets, and it got worse in the sixth, when he teed up a middle-middle fastball to Dansby Swanson, who launched another three-run homer, again with two outs. The partying Norwegians were oblivious in the centerfield bleachers, dancing and chanting the whole time, but McLean’s sudden mortality — he’s allowed six or more runs in three of his last seven starts — seemed like a white towel for a wobbly team on the ropes.
“The season’s definitely testing our mental fortitude for sure,” McLean said.
And it’s a season that’s rapidly slipping away, if not gone already.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
