The Mets weren’t no-hit but they were shutout for the eighth time this season in a 9-0 loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday afternoon.
The Mets fell to 35-51, and are now 24-50 since that sizzling 11-1 start. Now the Phillies and Nationals come into town to end the first half of the season.
“We have to get things going,” Mickey Callaway said. “It’s a situation where we need to get some momentum going into the All-Star break, take a few days off, the come back clicking on all cylinders and hopefully we have some of our other players back as well.”
Unfortunately the only interest left in the season involves trade rumors and how the young players on the team will develop.
There was no drama on Sunday as C.J. Cron crushed a three-run homer off Chris Flexen in the top of the first. Flexen gave up five runs in three innings before being pinch-hit for in the bottom of the third.
Nathan Eovaldi retired the first 18 Mets before Brandon Nimmo led off the seventh with a single. The only question remaining was if the Mets would score, but Devin Mesoraco was stranded at third in the ninth inning.
The Mets have now lost 17 of 20 home games in front of quiet Citi Field crowds. The manager doesn’t think there is any issue with lethargy in his team though.
“I think the energy’s been there the whole year,” Callaway said. “Whether we’re on the way to almost getting no-hit or whatever, I think guys were locked in going up there. I haven’t seen our dugout not locked into the game or a guy goofing around.”
The skipper added that it isn’t little league and guys are not rah-rah. Of course the team had no problem doing the salt and pepper shaker celebration after base hits earlier in the season.
That was back when pitchers only giving up a few runs meant winning a game. When a Met starting pitcher goes six innings giving up two earned runs or less, the team is somehow 12-17. Isn’t that
unfathomable?
“It really is,” Callaway said. “Our starting pitchers have been tremendous and you almost get lucky when you win a series but it just hasn’t happened for us. We’ve got to keep on plugging along, try to keep on improving every day and start making sure that we really concentrate on the next at-bat, the next pitch and grind everything out until we can get all the components of our game figured out and synched up.”
Things synched up on Sunday as the Mets didn’t pitch or hit. It looked like one of the Sunday horror show matinees that were common for the team last year.
Terry Collins famously ranted after a 9-0 loss at home two years ago, but that was the defending National League champions and a squad that would battle to become a wild card. There’s not much to say now because this team isn’t going anywhere.
Now the Phillies and Nationals come to town, and give the Mets a reminder of the playoff race that they thought they would be in this season.