Final week, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns was requested if he may determine any obvious weaknesses together with his workforce. On the time, there wasn’t a lot to pinpoint, however Saturday at Yankee Stadium, one turned very obvious.
The Mets are struggling to hit with runners in scoring place.
A 3-2 win to even the sequence on Saturday may have been completely different had the Mets been capable of capitalize on bases-loaded conditions within the fourth and ninth innings. A fly ball scored one within the ninth and put the Mets forward for good, however Juan Soto grounded right into a force-out with two outs to strand two runners, giving Edwin Diaz a one-run result in shield.
They got here out of the fourth inning with solely two runs. It didn’t give right-hander Griffin Canning a lot respiration room to work with, and Cody Bellinger tied the sport at 2-2 within the sixth with a leadoff homer.
In whole: The Mets went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring place and left eight runners on base. Nevertheless, the numbers aren’t at all times what they appear. Supervisor Carlos Mendoza was removed from upset within the efforts of the hitters Saturday. Soto couldn’t give you successful within the ninth, however he smoked the ball to shortstop Anthony Volpe, hitting it 113 MPH off the bat.
“I thought we took some really good at-bats,” he mentioned.
Nonetheless, for all of the issues the Mets have completed properly this 12 months, they haven’t been capitalizing on offensive alternatives. They’re hitting simply .221 with runners in scoring place and .206 with runners in scoring place and two outs.
“You have to stay the course,” mentioned leadoff hitter Francisco Lindor. “You have to have good at-bats and try not to let the situation be bigger than it actually is. Understand that at the end of the day, whether you have somebody on or not, you have to get the job done and pass the baton. Slowly, we’ll get there.”
Friday evening, the Mets went 2-for-11 with runners on second or third, and Wednesday evening towards the cellar-dwelling Pittsburgh Pirates they went 0-for-4. Within the month of Might, they went 25-for-114 for a .219 common over their first 15 video games. The lineup is creating loads of visitors, however the large, well timed hits simply don’t appear to be coming the best way they did in April.
Soto is hitting .132 with RISP, Mark Vientos is right down to .136 and Lindor is hitting .211. Others have been higher in small pattern sizes, nevertheless it’s robust glean a lot from hitters like Luisangel Acuña, Brett Baty and Starling Marte. None of them play every single day, Acuña is a rookie and Baty went right down to Triple-A briefly final month and for the primary time in his profession.
Marte, who has been an on a regular basis participant all through his total profession, has had hassle together with his timing on the plate from inconsistent taking part in time, however he isn’t discouraged. He’s looking for methods to be productive in a task way more restricted than he’s used to by hitting within the cages throughout video games and dealing with the pitching machine.
Mendoza thinks a few of his prime hitters are chasing pitches in vital spots, seeing Pete Alonso and Soto each chase pitches out of the zone in Friday evening’s sequence opener.
“Felt like last night we chased a lot,” Mendoza mentioned Saturday morning earlier than the second recreation of the sequence. “It’s easy for me to sit here and say that when we control the strike zone — especially in those situations where we are creating traffic — we’re a dangerous team. We go through stretches where we start chasing, and they made us chase last night. We will have to make some adjustments here, especially controlling the strike zone when we have runners on base.”
There was an opportunity to blow the sport open towards the Yankees within the fourth inning. Lindor and Soto drew leadoff walks from right-hander Clarke Schmidt, and Alonso hit an RBI single to left to attain Lindor from second and tie the sport at 1-1. Vientos put the Mets forward 2-1 with a sacrifice fly for the second out.
Schmidt loaded the bases, giving up a single to Jeff McNeil and strolling Luis Torrens. That introduced up Baty, who has been having a breakout month, however Baty popped as much as Aaron Decide in proper area.
Within the eighth, Alonso was on third base with two outs and the Yankees went to right-hander Fernando Cruz to counter Vientos.
The DH struck out on 4 pitches.
The Mets are trusting their course of, and trusting that good approaches and exhausting hits will discover grass as an alternative of leather-based most of the time. They’ve but to lose three video games in a row as a result of they regularly discover different methods to win after they aren’t capitalizing on having runners on base. It’s an extended season, and whereas this problem may finally get uncovered, the Mets are remaining optimistic that good hitters will prevail.
“We know we’re good, but everyone will face adversity,” Mendoza mentioned. “We’re just doing a good job of turning the page, especially after a couple of losses.”
Initially Revealed: Might 17, 2025 at 4:25 PM EDT
