The Mets hadn’t been able to score more than two runs in a week, so they teased everyone with three in the first inning on Saturday night and then no more in a 4-3 loss to the Yankees.
A new look lineup saw Todd Frazier batting second, and he hit a solo home run. Brandon Nimmo tripled and Asdrubal Cabrera followed with a two-run homer. And that was it.
“It would’ve been nice to keep on scoring, but the one thing I did see tonight was more traffic than we’ve been having,” Callaway said.
The Mets didn’t really have a lot of batters reach base, but the six men they left on does seem like a lot of traffic compared to the games of the season previous week.
They put two runners on in the third with one out but Cabrera popped out to third, and Jay Bruce struck out. Adrian Gonzalez doubled to lead off the seventh but got no further as Kevin Plawecki struck out, Luis Guillorme flew out to center and Amed Rosario grounded out to short. And the Mets put the tying and winning runs on in the ninth against Aroldis Chapman, but Jose Reyes lined out to right to end the game.
After eight straight losses have put the Mets at 27-34, there’s the question of if the Mets are even capable winning as opposed to just finding a scapegoat or blaming the manager. The manager thinks the team is in position to win.
“If you look at our past 18 games, our pitching staff has kept us in those games, we just haven’t come up with that big hit,” Callaway said.
“And a few of those games when we had the lead, we had a couple of relievers that, for whatever reason, just didn’t get the job done. We’ve played the closest games in all of Major League Baseball. We have to have. I mean, it’s a close game every night. We just need the big hit, the big shutdown inning. And it’s not like we’re getting boat-raced every night. We’re in every single game, and we all feel like we have a chance to win every single night.”
Somehow the Mets lose in similar fashion and still find new ways to do it. This time they had to watch as Aaron Judge greeted former Yankee Anthony Swarzak with a home run over the left field wall to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead in the eighth.
The Mets are in danger of losing all nine games on this homestand, with AL Cy Young candidate Luis Severino starting on Sunday night. Callaway is at least taking the losses one at a time as opposed to letting them pile up.
“The games we’ve already played are over,” Callaway said. “This one hurts right now until we come to the ballpark tomorrow and get refocused on winning the game tomorrow.”
Of course, those losses pile up in the standings. And if a few more pile up, the Mets might find that the trade deadline looms larger and larger.