Reeling New York Mets lose for ninth time in final 10 video games

NEW YORK — For almost two weeks, the New York Mets’ offense, apart from one outburst, has been an issue. The alarming development continued Monday night time towards the Atlanta Braves.

On a sweltering night time at Citi Subject, with the temperature at first pitch a balmy 87 levels, the Mets’ bats remained frigid in a 3-2 loss. New York has dropped 9 of 10 video games and scored 19 whole runs in these 9 defeats. The exception was an 11-run effort fueled by seven dwelling runs within the Mets’ win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday.

What was a 5½-game lead within the Nationwide League East has abruptly morphed right into a 1½-game deficit to the Phillies through the brief span.

Mets supervisor Carlos Mendoza attributed the offense’s tough patch to 2 points: Early deficits have produced poor at-bats, and the underside half of the lineup has not been adequate.

“We’re relying a lot on our high guys,” Mendoza mentioned. “And now we have a whole lot of guys within the backside of the lineup which are going via it proper now. And when that occurs, when you get previous the fourth or fifth batter, we’re having a tough time creating alternatives, creating probabilities for us, and it is laborious to attain like that. We have been speaking about, after we had been taking part in nicely, how deep our lineup was. Now, we received a couple of guys which are struggling.”

The numbers help Mendoza’s assertion. Since June 11, the start of a stretch by which the Mets have been held to 5 or fewer runs in 12 of 13 video games, New York’s 5 via 9 hitters have mixed for the bottom batting common within the majors (.183) and the second-lowest OPS (.534). Solely the Braves’ backside 5 hitters have gathered a decrease OPS through the stretch.

On Monday, New York’s high three hitters — Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo and Juan Soto — mixed for 4 of the group’s six hits and its solely stroll. Brett Baty, the No. 9 hitter, notched the opposite two hits — singles within the third and fifth innings. The Mets’ 4 via 8 hitters went a mixed 0-for-18 with 5 strikeouts.

“We have to proceed to help the fellows,” Mendoza mentioned. “Proceed to work. However it’s about outcomes, proper? So, yeah, we proceed to have all the arrogance in these guys, however now we have to be higher.”

Soto has not been an issue. After a comparatively gradual begin to the season, which included questions on his hustle and relentless physique language evaluation, the star proper fielder has been certainly one of baseball’s finest hitters in June with a .324 batting common, 1.188 OPS and eight dwelling runs in 21 video games. On Monday, after the Mets fell behind 3-0 via three innings, he cracked a two-run dwelling run within the sixth towards Braves starter Spencer Schwellenbach, who logged seven innings towards the Mets for the second time in per week, for New York’s solely scoring putout.

However Soto failed to return via with runners on the corners and two outs within the eighth inning, hanging out on a 3-2 slider from left-hander Dylan Lee under the strike zone on the eighth pitch of the at-bat. Lee then retired the facet so as within the ninth inning for the sport’s last three outs, sending the Mets to a different defeat.

“He made a terrific pitch,” mentioned Soto, who has 17 dwelling runs with an .878 OPS this season. “He made actually good pitches on the corners, and I simply could not come via on the final one. He threw a very good one. Simply received me proper there.”