Mets Lose Opener of the Subway Series by Rich Coutinho/The NYExtra.com
The Mets have now dropped 9 of their last 10 games as the Yankees beat the Mets 7-6 at Citifield. The team handed a 5-1 lead to Max Scherzer, but the Bronx Bombers plated 5 runs in the 4th inning to take a lead. The Mets tied it up in the 5th but in the top of the sixth inning the Yankees took the lead for good on a Josh Donaldson sacrifice fly.
In the post-game Met clubhouse, you see the frustration as Scherzer noted that his slider was just not working on this night and the players also was very upset about the Drew Smith ejection that will cost him a suspension hurting the Met bullpen for the next 10 games. Smith was booted from the game as he took the mound in the seventh inning before he even threw a pitch making some Mets wonder if this team is being picked on by the umpires.
Francisco Lindor summed it up by saying, “It seems the process changes from umpire crew to the next crew and possibly that needs to be more consistent.” Lindor also spoke about the mood of this team saying, “We can’t allow ourselves to get down and simply we need to start winning some games. I had a chance late in the game with the bases loaded and I struck out. I need to approach that at bat by hitting the ball in play and I got some pitches to hit, but I could not get it done.”
Walking around the clubhouse, I could sense a deepening level of frustration across the board as they have blown leads of 3 runs or more three separate times this week and that simply cannot continue. The deeper concern is that this team was built on a starting rotation that would not allow long losing skids and quite frankly, Kodai Senga is the only hurler that has given the Mets consistent efforts.
Scherzer looked like he was progressing until his last 2 starts in Atlanta and here in the Subway Series and that is a huge concern for the Mets. Justin Verlander has struggled as well and simply put, if those 2 pitchers do not right the ship, this team is in huge trouble. Verlander gets the start on Wednesday night in Game 2 of the Subway Series and I hate to say this in mid-June but that game is really a must win for this team.
The schedule gets no easier as the Cardinals come in after this series and then the Mets go to Houston and Philly before returning home to play the Brewers and Giants finishing the first half of the season with a road trip to Arizona and San Diego. And they are a season low 5 games under 500 which means they cannot afford to continue losing series after series.
The next few weeks are a real benchmark for this team as to get to 500 by the All Star Break they will need to go 15-9 in their next 24 games. That is a tall order because they are playing tough teams and still need to fix so much with the pitching staff. Yes, there are plenty of games left in the season–95 to be exact–but the calendar is moving fast, and this Met team needs to start understanding the journey they have to embark upon if they are to save this season.
