At one of the first key checkpoints of the Major League Baseball season, the Mets have erased the good graces that they had secured with a Subway Series victory last weekend.
With Heriberto Hernandez‘s walk-off grand slam off Devin Williams on Sunday afternoon, the Mets were swept across three games by the Marlins, capped with a 4-0 loss in Miami. In a six-game series against NL East foes in the Nationals and Marlins, the Mets went 2-5.
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They split a four-game series against the Nationals before scoring two total runs in three defeats to the Marlins.
“We’ve got no choice, right?” Carlos Mendoza told reporters of how the Mets need to recover from this weekend’s ugly performance. “We’re scuffling. We’ve got a lot of guys that are going through it right now. We’re not grinding at-bats. … We got to figure it out because you got to be able to score runs.”
As the Mets arrive home for a Memorial Day matinee with the Reds at 4:10 p.m. on Monday at Citi Field, the Mets sit at 22-31, sharing the second-worst record in the National League with the Giants. The Mets will play three against the Reds before their first off day in 16 days on Thursday. They will have a rematch over three games beginning Friday against the Marlins in Flushing.
But they will have to play far better to right the ship after missing a major opportunity this past weekend. The Marlins had limped in as losers of three straight but continued to torment the Mets on their home field.
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Over their last homestand when the Mets swept the Tigers and took two out of three from the Yankees, they averaged 6.2 runs per game.
But the Mets’ offense dropped off precipitously after they set a new franchise record with a 10-run 12th inning in the series opener over the Nationals last Monday. After the Mets were beat back-to-back despite scoring a combined 10 runs in the middle two games, they were able to work past the Nats in the finale despite scoring two runs.
But that momentum turned off as the Mets could only score one run on three hits in each of the first two games against the Marlins. Juan Soto had two of the Mets’ three hits, including a solo home run on Friday, with A.J. Ewing supplying the other. On Saturday, Max Meyer allowed only one hit to Mark Vientos over seven innings.
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“We’re going to continue to make adjustments because what we’re doing right now is not good enough, as simple as that,” Mendoza said. “We’ve got a few guys that are having a hard time. We’re having a hard time creating traffic. We’re having a hard time squaring the ball up and we got to figure it out.”
The Mets had five hits on Sunday but were shut out for the sixth time. They have been held to one run or fewer in 15 (28.8 percent) of their 52 games. The first two nights, the Mets only had one at-bat with a runner in scoring position. In the finale, they were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners on base.
Carson Benge, Marcus Semien and Luis Torrens all went hitless in the series.
“We ran into some good pitching. We ourselves were not at our best,” Semien said. “We were in a position to win this game, had a couple chances and couldn’t come through with two outs.”
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The Mets were missing their top hitter in Soto on Sunday due to an illness, and his status for Monday was uncertain following the final game of the series.
“We’ll see,” Mendoza said. “A few guys that had it, it’s kind of a 24-hour thing, so hopefully that’s the case and he’s back at it tomorrow.”
With Soto out of the lineup, A.J. Ewing batted third in the Mets’ lineup and was one of the few members of the lineup to come through. He was 2-for-4 with a stolen base and a strikeout.
The Mets could use the offensive spark that Soto has provided over the last five series. During that span, the outfielder is slashing .291/.391/.618 with six home runs, 11 RBI, 12 runs, four stolen bases and 10 walks.
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Despite Williams seeing his scoreless streak snapped at 10 appearances with a gut punch of a home run, the pitching was not the issue in the series.
Collectively, the pitching staff only allowed 10 runs across three games. Christian Scott provided one of the best starts of the weekend, tossing 5⅔ scoreless innings with five strikeouts while scattering four hits and two walks.
It was the Mets’ first scoreless outing of at least 5⅔ scoreless since Clay Holmes tossed six shutout innings on April 28.
“I felt like I competed in the strike zone with all my pitches pretty well,” Scott told reporters. “I was able to get ahead much more than last outing. I was able to get ahead and stay ahead of hitters to be able to get deeper in the game today.”
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Scott picked up nine whiffs, including three strikeouts on his sweeper and two on the fastball that topped out at 97.8 mph. The Marlins had a runner reach scoring position in three of the first four innings, but Scott kept them off the board. With the bases loaded in the third, he struck out Owen Cassie and picked up a groundout. In the fourth, it was a strikeout of Christopher Morel and fly ball with two runners on base.
While Scott’s record remained 0-0, he dropped his ERA from 4.12 to 3.20 with his longest outing of the season.
“He was solid,” Mendoza said. “I thought the life on the fastball was good. The secondary pitches were good. He gave us a chance.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NY Mets return home following three-game sweep to Marlins, 3 takeaways
