Rock bottom? After dud in LA, Mets searching for answers: ‘We need to score a run’

LOS ANGELES — Just when the Mets’ offensive woes seemed like they couldn’t get any worse, New York’s struggling lineup crashed down to a new early-season low on Monday in Los Angeles.

The Mets were blanked by the Dodgers, a 4-0 loss where they mustered up only three scattered hits, all of them singles.

The Mets have now lost six games in a row and haven’t scored a run in 20 innings.

There’s no such thing as rock bottom 17 games into a season, with five-plus months remaining on the schedule, but this sure felt like it. (And let’s not forget how putrid the Mets’ 0-5 start in 2024 was before they figured things out and ultimately reached the NLCS).

“It obviously sucks losing games,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “The guys are working their butts off, and I know they’ll continue to come to the yard and everyone will work their butts off and compete every night.”

Something changed for the Mets after they traveled back home from their series in San Francisco earlier this month. They won three games in a row that weekend after dropping a series in St. Louis and losing Juan Soto to a calf strain on that Friday night.

Through that Sunday, the Mets had the ninth-best offense in all of baseball when it came to batting average (.250), on-base percentage (.333) and OPS (.723). They had issues on offense — namely, an inability to cash in with runners in scoring position — but the potential within this new-look unit was crystal clear.

Following Monday night’s pathetic performance at Dodger Stadium, seven games later, the Mets now have the 26th-ranked OBP (.297), 28th-ranked OPS (.638) and 19th-ranked batting average (.230) in MLB.

It doesn’t take an expert to diagnose the problem. The Mets aren’t churning out quality at-bats anymore. They’re making quick outs, failing to lift the ball with authority. Several stars are off to cold starts and they’ve hit into some poor batted-ball luck on hard-hit balls in play. And, of course, they’re badly missing Soto.

All of that is a recipe for disaster, a skid that adds fuel to the narrative from a chunk of Mets fans that president of baseball operations David Stearns made a mistake dismantling the Mets’ core to bring in fresh faces.

There hasn’t been nearly enough thump in this lineup to out-slug these problems. It’s taking the Mets an average of 44.85 at-bats between home runs this year (the third-worst mark in the league), and they’ve scored more runs (62) than only five other teams.

“A lot of guys are working hard to work our way out of this,” second baseman Marcus Semien said. “We need to score a run to win games. We haven’t done it the last two. Our pitchers are throwing the ball well, we just need to get back to what we did when we were in San Francisco and what we were doing in spring training.”

The fifth inning for the Mets on Monday night was a microcosm of their offensive struggles.

Facing Dodgers left-handed starter Justin Wrobleski, cleanup hitter Bo Bichette ripped a 108.9-mph grounder to the left side. Third baseman Max Muncy gobbled it up and fired to first for the hard-hit out. The Mets produced hard contact (95-plus mph) eight times in the first six innings on Monday night. Seven of them were outs.

One batter later, after falling behind on a first-pitch strike, designated hitter Jorge Polanco bounced a single through the right side. That was the Mets’ first base runner to that point. Finally, some semblance of momentum.

Polanco was erased two pitches later. Catcher Francisco Alvarez took a first-pitch strike and then expanded the zone, grounding into an inning-ending double play.

Wrobleski needed only 90 pitches to get through eight shutout innings, striking out just two batters. Polanco’s single was one of two knocks against Wrobleski. Dodgers lefty reliever Tanner Scott faced the minimum in the ninth, getting Francisco Lindor to ground into a game-ending double play after a Semien single.

The Mets haven’t had success against left-handed pitching at all this year, picking up where they left off in 2025. Adding Tommy Pham, a right-handed hitter, to the mix is related to that because he’s viewed as a platoon option while Soto is on the IL.

Mendoza credited Wrobleski and the Dodgers for being so aggressive in the strike zone. The Mets weren’t giving them any reasons to be apprehensive about attacking early in counts to get ahead.

“Just having a hard time driving the baseball,” Mendoza said. “Lot of ground balls. Even the balls that we’re hitting hard, we’re hitting them on the ground. We’re having a hard time squaring up fastballs or anything.”

Soto isn’t walking through the door to the Mets’ clubhouse as a savior, at least not for another week or two. The Mets don’t have an update on his precise timetable, but he stayed at Citi Field during this Mets road trip to continue his rehab. Eventually, he’ll reintroduce running to his workouts and then face live pitching.

Until then, the Mets need to figure out what it’s going to take to break through offensively without their best player. Asked what it is that gives him confidence this club can withstand this adversity, Semien, a former World Series champion with the Rangers, singled out work ethic and talent. The effort is there, but the Mets, for the most part, aren’t playing to the back of their baseball cards. Until the Mets snap out of this, their current brand of baseball is their norm.

“We obviously don’t want to go on these streaks,” Mendoza said, “but takes one game to turn it around and that can be tomorrow. I think that’s our job is to be ready for tomorrow’s game, take care of one game at a time, and go from there.”

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