Desperation Row

Starling Marte got a good lead off second, had a good jump as soon as Jeff McNeil singled into center, took a good route around third, sped home at a good rate, and made a good slide toward the plate. He did everything well on the two-out play intended to tie the Mets-Brewers game in the top of the ninth. He was out, anyway.

Such things happen in the course of a baseball season. Such things happen to end baseball games. Such things happen to teams of all stripe. That it’s all happening to the Mets right now is what makes the conclusion to Friday’s 3-2 loss in Milwaukee that much more vexing. The Mets totaled five hits. Two of them were solo home runs, one struck in the first inning by Juan Soto, the other blasted by Marte in the second. Two of them were the double and single strung together by Marte and McNeil in the ninth. In between, there was a McNeil single in the fourth and nothing more. McNeil in the fourth was erased on a double play.

The Mets outhit the Brewers, 5-4. But Brewer pitching, led by Brandon Woodruff for seven innings, struck out more batters while walking fewer of them. The only pitcher on either side to hit anybody was a Met, Brooks Raley. That came with the bases loaded in the fifth, after Brice Turang had socked a two-run homer that was set up by a Kodai Senga error, the only error made in the game. That shot had tied the score at two. After getting one out, Senga walked a batter, had one reach when catcher’s interference was called on Francisco Alvarez, and walked another batter. That was the bases-loaded situation Raley stepped into, the one that led to the HBP.

Throughout the game, there emerged slight edge after slight edge the Brewers had on the Mets. Another “such things happen” situation, perhaps, but haven’t we been seeing this versus the Padres, the Giants, and the Guardians? Look what the opponents brought to bear. Tighter fielding. Clutcher pitching. A home run hit with a runner on base. A bases-loaded opportunity taken advantage of just by letting the Mets hand it to them. Such things keep happening.

Senga was OK for four innings, didn’t last the fifth. Woodruff looked like the ace we thought Senga was. Our bullpen, despite Raley’s one pitch that hit dinged Isaac Collins in the foot at the worst possible juncture, was sufficiently sound. Ryne Stanek, Gregory Soto, and Tyler Rogers were fine (and hopefully don’t become unavailable the rest of the weekend for having been used once). They kept the deficit at one run. So did the Met offense. The composite of three hits in the first eight-and-two-thirds-innings left lots of white space the Mets never filled. Strikeouts. Groundouts. Flyouts. Uninterrupted futility. Hitters who didn’t exactly jog to first, but they sure as hell didn’t sprint. The Met lineup seems to have subscribed to the notion that nothing is going to happen, so why pretend they can make something out of nothing?

Yet there they were in the ninth, Marte delivering his second extra-base hit and McNeil singling for the second time. Starling was ready to run. He can still do that. Maybe Tyrone Taylor — the capable pinch-runner trepidatiously held up at third on Monday — could have gotten a better lead, a better jump, and been a better bet, but I saw nothing that indicated Starling was physically compromised (and do you really want Taylor as your DH should the game find itself in an eleventh inning?). McNeil came through, Marte executed, and Mike Sarbaugh had no reason to put up a stop sign. In the end, the Brewers had one more slight edge on the Mets. Blake Perkins made an excellent throw, William Contreras caught it where he needed to be, and he tagged Marte out. The Mets challenged, perhaps for the first time all night in any sense of the word, and they were rebuffed. The Brewers won one of those one-run games that didn’t feel quite so close.

The Mets have lost five in row, nine out of ten. Everything feels like it’s the reason. Senga’s gotta go longer. Taylor coulda been in there. Acuña oughta be up here (he oughta, actually). Mistakes have to be minimized. Catcher’s interference? Yeesh, absolutely, but there was one Met hit from none out in the top of the second to two out in the top of the ninth. Some nights, like the night of the third game of last year’s Wild Card Series in the very same ballpark, you can wait until the ninth inning to pull out all the stops, but that was a special occasion in a special year. There’s nothing special going on here now.

Not so fab of late.

Try something. My possibly goofy suggestion is take the so-called Fab Four, whose golden slumbers atop the lineup are weighing down the offense as a whole, and break them up for a spell. Shuffle the deck. Bat one of them second, one of them fourth, one of them sixth, and one of them eighth. Or first, third, fifth, and seventh. I don’t care which Met you put where at this point. I know Lindor, Soto, Alonso, and Nimmo are far better than they’ve shown, but I swear they’re infecting each other with their contiguous mediocrity, and the effect on everybody else is that of a superspreader. Let a couple of them bat where the pressure feels lighter. Maybe they’ll rediscover the approach that made them stars. Maybe the opposing pitcher will be flummoxed that he has to face a repuational big bat every other spot. Simultaneously, move Mullins, who isn’t getting anything done wherever he’s batted, to the top of the order. Or Mauricio. Or McNeil. Or whoever. Anything for one or two games. Whatever they’re doing and continue to do clearly isn’t working. It ain’t Panic City if constancy for constancy’s sake is stranding you in Also-Ran Village.

The Mets continue to hold a playoff spot because they played very well for a while in this very same season. Both facts are hard to believe based on what we’ve been watching for the bulk of nearly two months. It’s hard to believe they will play very well again in this season and it’s almost laughable to anticipate them participating in the upcoming postseason. The tenor of laughs can certainly change from early August onward. Can you believe we ever doubted the 2025 Mets? HA on us! But not at this rate. Try something. Try almost anything. To not change up some aspect of the Mets while they wither is most trying of all.