MIAMI — The Mets had everything going for them. The soft September schedule seemed to invite more wins. They enjoyed a nice day off in the sun and surf here Thursday. Even the crowd was on their side Friday. Then they started playing the game, and everything went kaput.
The Mets lost for the fourth time in seven games in what was rightly seen as the easiest part of their schedule.
“We never looked at it that way,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said after the latest loss, a lackluster 6-3 defeat to the also-ran Marlins. “I know everyone else looked at it like that. We certainly don’t look at it that way. It’s disrespectful to the other team.”
There’s no room to disrespect anyone these days, as any team seems a threat to step right up and beat the Mets. Their once 10 ¹/₂ game lead in the NL East was wiped out Friday by their loss and the Braves’ victory in Seattle, especially impressive as Atlanta has been playing against a much tougher finishing schedule.
Sure, the Marlins can pitch a little. But they thoroughly defeated the Mets on both sides of the ball. The team that rarely homers hit one in their first inning and one in the last, putting the finishing touches on an unmemorable defeat that left the Mets’ clubhouse eerily quiet. Heads hung. Forget that monstrous advantage they once held in their division; it’s gone.
Joely Rodriguez sits in the dugout after being removed in the eighth inning. Getty ImagesForget that Fangraphs, thanks to that inviting schedule, still gives them a 63 percent chance to hang on, too. They need to start winning.
Their 3-4 record this week came against the Nationals, Pirates and Marlins, inarguably three of the worst teams in the league, whether the Mets look at them that way or not. The Mets played so beautifully for months against the toughest part of their schedule, it would be a waste to blow it against lineups like these.
The Marlins entered the evening with no one in their lineup having more than seven home runs, which is a month for Mets MVP candidate Pete Alonso. The Marlins are 27th out of 30 teams in slugging, on-base percentage, OPS and runs, and 28th in batting average. So at least they are consistent.
While Derek Jeter was being honored for his Hall of Fame career as a Yankee up in The Bronx, his former Marlins team was outperforming its history. As an executive, Jeter was less good. “The Jeter-[Gary] Denbo group, they killed the Marlins with bad trades, draft picks, free agent signings of position players since 2017,” one rival scout said. “They chased athletes who couldn’t hit, chased power over hit ability.”
They can be dangerous anyway, at times. The Mets found that out the hard way.
“They’re not the Dodgers, they’re not the Braves, but they’re still a good team,” Francisco Lindor said of the Marlins. “[Edward] Cabrera’s a good pitcher.”
Charles Leblanc hits a two-run homer in the eighth inning. Getty ImagesThe Mets were about the most consistently good team in the game for months, fashioning an impressive lead in one of the better divisions in the game, while doing it against better competition. The reward was a closing schedule that looked like a gift from the gods. Following the Miami trip, their September slate reads: Cubs, Pirates, Brewers, Athletics, Marlins again.
If you are scoring at home, that’s four also-rans plus the Brewers, a team that has played like one in the second half, before they finish up against the Braves and Nationals. Of course, if they play like this, it won’t matter. Starter David Peterson and reliever Joely Rodriguez, who suffered the indignity of being booed for poor performance in an away park (remember, the majority of fans were for the Mets), had command issues. The hitters, for once, had clutch issues.
Jeff McNeil grounded into a double play with two on and a chance to tie it in the third, and Lindor did the same with the bases loaded in the seventh.
“I did the last thing I should do,” Lindor said. “It’s not fun. It’s not fun not to help the team. It’s tough. But we’ve got to turn the page.”
The Mets have been doing more than their share of that lately. But what choice do they have?
They wouldn’t want to dwell on a game like this, in which Garrett Cooper, who recently busted out of a hellacious 2-for-40 slump, hit a two-run home run early, and light-hitting infielder Charles Leblanc hit a two-run, opposite-field homer in the eighth. So little went right.
The Mets’ only big blow was a scorcher off the bat of Alonso, who drilled a ball into the first row above the scoreboard flashing the name of the starting pitcher he just victimized, Cabrera, for his 33rd homer. Alonso has carried this team at times this year. But he’s going to need help. Yes, even against these guys, he needs help.
