Yes, I know, I said back on that fateful May 18 date that the Mets were headed for the playoffs. I still think that. But I am worried now — very worried.
The Mets wasted many chances on what turned out to be an otherwise beautiful Sunday at Citi Field. And they wasted their greatest opportunity of the season over 12 early August games against the four worst teams in baseball not counting the history-bound White Sox. And who does count the South Side Sox anymore, anyway?
The Mets are a well-deserved 7-9 to start August, following their worst defeat of the season (at least until the next worst defeat) — an excruciating 3-2 loss to the scrappy but fire-sold Marlins. Yep, the Miami lineup of anonymous kids trying out for a future of their own made baseball’s best-paid team’s present worse.
What hurts is the Mets would be in playoff position if only they reversed their squandered August start and went 9-7 versus the softest almost imaginable part of the schedule.
What hurts worse is that they went 6-6 against the Marlins, A’s, Angels and Rockies. I wouldn’t say any of those games are gimmies, as they are not the White Sox, whose only remaining competition is history’s darlings, the 1962 Mets. But they are four teams that started off bad and got worse after selling some of the few desirable pieces on rotten rosters.
I am very worried after seeing first-half relief revelation Reed Garrett blow up yet again. Following an extraordinary run-saving diving catch by Brandon Nimmo, who hurt his shoulder on the play, Garrett walked three straight Marlins to set up the game-winning rally in the eighth inning.
Mind you, these aren’t just any three hitters, but three hitters for the Marlins, the least disciplined team in MLB (yep, that even includes the White Sox). They walked a grand total of 292 times coming into Sunday, but this was a meeting of the movable object and stoppable force; Mets pitchers walk more than every NL team.
You remember Luis Severino the day before. His miraculous complete-game shutout was built on some of the quickest innings ever played, including one that required just three pitches and another requiring only four. The Fish start swinging as soon as they emerge from the dugout. Yet, Garrett managed to walk three of the four batters he faced in the eighth.
I am extremely worried because of what’s up next. The next three series come against teams in playoff position. First come the Orioles, who are challenging the Yankees. Then the Mets go out West to play the Padres and Diamondbacks, who all but locked up the first two wild-card spots once open to the Mets. Then they finally get the White Sox. And based on these past couple weeks, who even knows about that?
I’m worried because if you play .500 against the lowest of the low-rung sellers, what do you do against three solid teams that improved most at the deadline?
“We better step up,” NL MVP candidate Francisco Lindor said. “If we want to be in the postseason, we better do it against these teams.”
Lindor can’t do it alone either, fellas. The Mets shortstop, who came into the game leading the National League in fWAR — yep, ahead of even that great DH Shohei Ohtani, 5.9 to 5.8 — needs serious help. Lindor is on quite a run, and since that May 18 date when manager Carlos Mendoza moved him into the leadoff spot (and I predicted October baseball for the Mets), Lindor leads the NL not only in fWAR but hits, too, and he’s second in runs, third in doubles, fourth in steals and average, sixth in on-base percentage and OPS and eighth in RBIs (yes, eighth in RBIs for a leadoff man!)
The Mets do have a deep lineup and bench but the two main candidates to provide Lindor help remain Pete Alonso and Nimmo, and unfortunately Nimmo is headed for an MRI tube Monday. Nimmo just started to heat up, too, and he lined a homer into the upper deck in the sixth inning to give the Mets the lead one inning after Lindor’s RBI single tied things.
Lindor nearly played the hero again Sunday, driving a smash to the warning track with two on in the ninth inning before Cristian Pache ran it down. Eight innings earlier, Derek Hill — then playing center — made an even more spectacular play crashing into the wall while catching an Alonso drive that the Marlins turned into a double play when Mark Vientos was thrown out at home trying to score from second.
Lindor complimented Marlins manager Skip Schumaker for inserting Pache into the game for defensive purposes. And Schumaker, told of Lindor’s compliment, responded that he can’t believe how great a leader Lindor is, and how “underrated” he is, too.
It’s weird that a player with a $341 million contract is underrated, but he is. The metrics are part of a small minority that understands Lindor’s meaning to the Mets. But he’s not going to be able to do this alone. Let’s go, guys. Even I am starting to doubt.