Another Costly Loss. Why do the Mets Keep Doing This to Themselves?

MIAMI – Inconsistency. Sloppy plays. Mental mistakes. 

That’s the story of the Mets’ season. So why would things change in their final series of the year? 

Having just won the series in Chicago, taking two out of three against the Cubs by playing with urgency and cashing in on opportunities, the Mets flew to Miami with their magic number at three to qualify for the playoffs. With everything to play for, that urgency evaporated after just a few innings against the Marlins. They jumped ahead to an early lead, then their pitching deteriorated, and defensive miscues rocked the boat. 

The Mets looked unstoppable one moment, and completely checked out the next in their 6-2 loss against the Marlins on Friday night. Once again, the ship is in dangerous territory of capsizing. 

“As a squad, we have to stay hungry,” first baseman Pete Alonso said. “And do whatever we can and lock in.”

Roughly 1,500 miles northwest of LoanDepot Park, the Reds defeated the Brewers, 3-1. The Mets began the weekend with a one-game lead over Cincinnati for the final National League wild card spot. By the time they walked out of the stadium Friday night, they were no longer in control of their destiny — again. The Reds, who own the tiebreaker over the Mets, effectively have a one-game advantage over the Amazins with two games left to play. 

So it goes. 

“We got to win the next two games and see what happens,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “But we did it to ourselves.”

The whole season, we have seen New York make mistakes, both physically and mentally. I would expect them to appear in Miami, even if only because Mets cannot afford to make mistakes with such little margin of error. But the Mets cannot avoid it. Another self -destructive spiral appeared in the fifth entry of his loss. This time it was the Marlins, who have nothing to play for, that tokkvantage of the Goffes of the Mets.

Miami erased the advantage of the Amazines after three consecutive hits to open the fifth entrance against the new Rookie holder Brandon Sproat. In the second of those successes, Alonso could not make a diving play at the beginning, and the ball moved from his glove to the right garden. Some batters later, the right-handed Diestro Gregory Soto entered the game with one outside and the Mets, 3-2, and ignored the corridor, Agustín Ramírez, on the first base. Ramírez, taking the track, stole second and third base without a release each time. In the defense of Sotos, at least he tried to catch Edwards stealing third place, but the third base Ronny Mauricio was caught sleeping the nap, and did not cover the bag.

Immediately, the next batter, Xavier Edwards, aligned a simple RBI to the center, noting the race that the Mets gave to the Marlins. The Mets could not play baseball with Heads-Up and cost them. Rinse, wash, repeat.

Then, the pinches batter Connor Norby parked a two -run homer on the left, which caused a six -run rally for the Marlins who became too steep so that the level Mets exceed it.

“We continue making the same mistakes,” Mendoza said. “And it is costing us games.”

There were flashes of the Mets playing at their best, none more revealing than in the first entry against the Marlins Ace Sandy Alcantara. Francisco Lindor, the team spark plug, led the top of the first entrance with a strong homer to the right garden for a 1-0 advantage. It was the 11th initial homer of the year of the Campocorto of the year, and it was a statement.

The Marlins pushed the beginning of Alcantara one day, aligning it so that the right could start against the Mets. Miami will continue to apply pressure on its division rivals, sending its three best headlines to the mound in this series and giving the team its best opportunity to destroy the hopes of the Playoffs of the Mets. After Alcantara, Rightlanders Eury Pérez and Edward Cabrera will take the hill.

Playing spoiler is all Marlins who have left at their schedule. They are mathematically eliminated from the postseason content after Thursday’s defeat against the Philis.

Then, getting ahead of Alcantara was at the top of the list of priorities for Mets. After the 31st home run of Lindor, Juan Soto aligned a single to the right garden and quickly stole the second base, putting himself in an annotation position. Alonso made the rest, starting his team leading the 40th double to the left garden and scoring Soto for a 2-0 advantage over Alcantara and the Marlins.

Missing for the execution of his game plan was to put a crooked number on the opposite pitcher. The crooked number came when their own men vary at the base. New York was 1 of 10 with runners in the scoring position in the first game of the series.

They thought the Mets did well to get to Alcantara in the first entry, they wasted to Chans in the second and third when it was clear that the Ace of the Marlins was still fighting with his command. Just when Soto stole his 38th base of the season and advanced to Third in the third entry, Alonso and Jeff McNeil struck out, without bringing the race home. That sequence was all the confidence that Alcantara and the Marlins needed to enter the cruise control. The winner of 2022 NL Cy Young withdrew 12 of his next 13 batters when the Mets, after having wasted his early opportunity against him, fell without fighting.

“Sandy is an ace,” said Alonso. “Hey, what Ases does. He reduced and made adjustments. I thought we had great shifts to bat, but it is unfortunate.”

Unfortunate? Try unacceptable. But well, they are not there yet. If the Mets lose the playoffs in this way, and if the season ended on Friday, they would be disqualified, they will use a more descriptive word than “unfortunate” to encapsulate this catastrophic fall.

Deesha thosar It covers the major leagues as a reporter and columnist of Fox Sports. She previously covered METS as Beat reporter for New York Daily News. The daughter of the Indian immigrants, Deesha, grew up in Long Island and now lives in Queens. Following it on Twitter ate @DeShathosar.

Get more from the Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more