Mets staying positive amidst five-game losing streak: 'It’s just a bad stretch'

Mets staying positive amidst five-game losing streak: 'It’s just a bad stretch'

After a 1-0 loss to the Athletics on Sunday afternoon, the Mets have now lost five games in a row.

During those five games, they’ve scored a total of nine runs, six of which came in Saturday’s loss. They’ve been shut out twice in the last three days and were outscored 33-12 during their six-game homestand.

Now, New York heads to Los Angeles for a three-game series against the NL West-leading Dodgers who entered Sunday winners of seven out of their last eight games.

Despite the state of the team right now, the Mets are staying the course and believe greener pastures are on the horizon.

“You just gotta stay consistent, you gotta stay positive with the guys,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “There’s a lot of good hitters there and it’s just a bad stretch. You gotta continue to trust the players there – they’re really good – and continue to work with them.”

Unfortunately, those hitters couldn’t come through on Sunday for Freddy Peralta who threw a gem without having his best stuff.

The Mets’ ace went six innings and allowed a run on four hits while walking three and striking out six. He threw one bad pitch, an 0-2 curveball to Nick Kurtz who launched it into right field for a solo homer in the third inning which was the difference in the game.

After that, the right-hander allowed just one more hit and retired eight of the last nine batters he faced.

“For some reason they weren’t swinging at the low changeups,” Peralta said about his outing. “But we made adjustments and we got better as the game was moving on and that’s what I’m happy with because we were able to make adjustments.”

As for the Mets hitters, they were unable to figure out Athletics starter Aaron Civale, who retired 13 in a row at one point, or the rest of the bullpen and scratched together four hits, half of them by Francisco Lindor.

“Today some balls were hit hard and we had a little bit of bad luck,” said Bo Bichette. “But overall I mean this team is really talented so we’re gonna score runs, but just overall everybody needs to have better at-bats and compete better. But we’ll be alright.”

The absence of Juan Soto in the lineup has exacerbated New York’s struggling offense. It was able to tread water for the first few games without him, but has been unable to pick up the slack since.

Still, one player, no matter how important, cannot be the team’s saving grace all year. At some point, other players need to step up as well.

“Nobody will deny the absence of Soto in the lineup, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have the capacity to score runs,” Mendoza said. “It’s a tough stretch for the hitters but we continue to have confidence in the players that are active and their abilities to get out of a slump.

“Obviously it won’t be easy to replace Juan, but at the same time we have the resources necessary to get hits and score runs and we will do it.”

One player who has been great all year for the Mets is Luis Robert Jr. who got the day off on Sunday after playing in five straight games. New York continues to be cautious with Robert whose season ended last year with a hamstring injury and who has had a history of injuries in his career.

Asked why Robert, who is slashing .319/.458/.447 in 47 at-bats this season, didn’t pinch-hit late in the game on Sunday, Mendoza said he wasn’t available to play in the field and would only have got an at-bat with the game on the line.

“Tough homestand overall offensively,” the skipper said.

It’s still early enough in the season for anybody to start panicking, but with such high expectations for the Mets this year and such a disappointing season last year, everything will be magnified.

Nevertheless, New York deserves a little more time to try and get things right before getting too worried. It’s a long season after all.

“I know we are way better than this and we have a great team and we believe in each other and I know that we are gonna do better,” Peralta said. “The time is gonna come. I know that there’s a lot of people who want us to win and we want to win too. But sometimes baseball is tough and we gotta get through this and these moments and I know we have a great team.”