Offense Dooms Mets in Final Game of 2025

Much of the talk ahead of Game 162 for the Mets was about pitching. Sean Manaea was named the starter. Having struggled all season, Manaea was given the ball with a short leash, and in followed a conga line of Met relievers. That decision left much to debate as to who would come in, what kind of opponent they would face upon entering the game, when and where they were used, and of course how they would perform. Unfortunately, all that pre-game debate was for naught. Why? Because the offense was shutout.

The Mets were able to strike first blood in the first two games of the final series of the year, scoring in the first inning of each game. Edward Cabrera was able to avoid that fate for his Marlins on Sunday, retiring the side in order.

In the second, what perhaps ended up as the strangest play of the game also quickly became a forgotten one. Cabrera inexplicably threw a pitch out of the windup with Mark Vientos at first base. Vientos was able to react and steal second, but Jeff McNeil took strike three down the middle, perhaps in part due to Cabrera’s surprising delivery. Not exactly the best fundamentals from Miami, but a trade-off they would take every time.

Francisco Alvarez then came up with a runner in scoring position, and the story old as time played out once more, unfortunately in the biggest game of the year. Alvarez was unable to get the key hit, stranding Vientos.

In the third, it was Juan Soto‘s turn with a RISP and one out, and just after Mets broadcaster Keith Hernandez, as he often does, chided the Marlins for playing their opposite-field middle infielder (in this case the shortstop) too far up the middle, Soto hit a ground ball right to him, beginning what would be an inning-ending double play.

After the Marlins scored four runs in the fourth inning, the Mets had a chance to respond. Instead, they had the RISP out that will live in Mets fans’ nightmares for at least the off-season, and depending on how next season goes, longer than that.

Pete Alonso came up with the bases loaded, after Cabrera had walked three batters, including Soto on four pitches.

Alonso swung at the first pitch, a sinker in the zone, and hit the ball 115.9 mph, the hardest hit ball in play not just in the game, but for any Met game the entire season.

Unfortunately for Alonso and his teammates, the ball found the webbing of the glove of Javier Sanoja in left, leaving Mets fans across the world in despair.

Of the eight hardest hit balls during the afternoon, six were from the Mets, three singles, two double plays and Alonso’s lineout. The other two? Run-scoring doubles from the Marlins.

The Mets would go 0-4 with RISP the rest of the game, and with a Francisco Lindor double play to finish things off, ended the year 0-70 in games in which they entered the ninth inning with a deficit.

One of the most startling statistics of 2025 for the Mets offense? 1,142 batters left on base, third-most in baseball behind the Brewers (1,158) and Braves (1,160). For context, the Mets left the 11th-most runners on base in 2024 (1,110). The team also grounded into the fourth-most double plays (119) compared to the 18th-most in 2024 (105).

“Baseball, man. Baseball,” Soto said after the game, when asked where things went wrong in 2025, “Even if you have a great team on paper, nobody’s gonna bring it to you. You have to go out and get it.

The Mets, believe it or not, came into Sunday’s game eighth in average with RISP, but far too many times their offense wasn’t able to go out and get it.

Despite fantastic years from Lindor, Soto, Alonso and Nimmo, improvements from Jeff McNeil and Brett Baty, and a second-half resurgence from Francisco Alvarez, the Mets finished tied for ninth in the majors in runs with 766. To put that into perspective, the team finished seventh in 2024 with 768, with what most believe to be an inferior lineup.

Much of the discussion about the demise of the 2025 Mets will be about the sudden downturn of both the starting pitching and the bullpen. But the pitching staff was always going to be a question mark. At the very least, the offense was supposed to sustain enough during the season to account for the pitching deficiencies, at least enough to make it to October.

If it weren’t for the pitching performing way better than expected in the first couple of months of the season, the lack of timely hitting could have resulted in the team being well under .500 and out of the mix weeks ago.

Now begins the long offseason, and the inner workings of a front office on how to build a team that makes its runs count. Why was it more difficult in 2025? Why could it turn back around in 2026?

Well, as Soto said, “Baseball, man. Baseball.”

The post Offense Dooms Mets in Final Game of 2025 appeared first on Metsmerized Online.