3 Up, 3 Down: Mets Drop Series To St. Louis

Zero offense and sloppy baseball ultimately doomed the New York Mets in St. Louis.

The Mets dropped their first series of the year after losing two out of three to the rebuilding Cardinals. That included an all-around bad effort in the finale.

It was the lack of offense in clutch situations that really concerned, however. And it is something the Mets will have to try and fix on the fly in a hurry.

On that note, let’s recap the Cardinals series in the latest edition of 3 Up, 3 Down.

3 UP

STARTING OFF HOT

Kodai Senga was electric in his 2026 season debut on Tuesday night. The righty allowed just two runs on four hits while striking out nine hitters over six hugely encouraging innings of work. Furthermore, Senga touched 99 mph on his fastball and just looked dominant at times. He did walk into some trouble in the third, but overall, this was a really impressive display and hopefully a positive portent of things to come.

HOLDING IT DOWN

Starting pitching certainly did its job throughout this series. Clay Holmes gave up two runs on four hits across 5 2/3 innings on Monday. He also showed his toughness, battling through a lot of traffic and overcoming a slow start. If he can increase his workload, then Holmes could become the dependable anchor in this rotation. Then, on Wednesday, Freddy Peralta was a lot better in his second start of the year. He allowed just one earned run and two walks while striking out seven over 5 1/3 sharp innings. All in all, the starting pitching has been really good to start the year, and it was more than solid in St. Louis.

GREAT RELIEF

Sticking with pitching, the bullpen also largely performed against the Cardinals. In the series opener, Tobias Myers, Brooks Raley and Devin Williams all combined to throw 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Granted, we’ve probably seen enough of Richard Lovelady already, who gave up another earned run on Tuesday. But, in the finale, Raley, Williams, and Luke Weaver all impressed out of the ‘pen. Again, the pitching hasn’t been the problem for the Mets so far this year. But you can’t say the same about the offense, which will lead us nicely into our next section.

3 DOWN

ALL-TIME BAD DAY

There are rough days at the office, and then there are the kind of days Francisco Lindor endured on Wednesday. The normally reliable shortstop just melted down in front of our very eyes. It started in the first inning when he lost count of how many outs there were, costing a chance at a double play. However, that mental error did not cost the Mets. What happened in the sixth arguably did. After taking a big lead, Lindor committed an ultimate brain fart and was picked off in no-man’s land. It was just an embarrassing play. Making it worse was the fact that Juan Soto hit a homer three pitches later. In a tight game, that extra run could have proved to be all the difference. Lindor also went 0-for-4 at the plate, capping off just a nightmare day at the office. We are used to seeing slow starts from Lindor, but not the kind of Little League mistakes we witnessed on Wednesday.

NOT CASHING IN

The Mets are struggling with runners in scoring position again. Where have we heard this one before? It was a fatal flaw that helped to sink this team in 2025. It also led to major changes on the roster and on the coaching staff during the offseason. However, just six games in, and the same old problems seem to be haunting the 2026 Mets. The lineup wasted countless opportunities in the series finale, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. They couldn’t force a runner home during extra innings, despite loading the bases in the 11th. And a lack of clutch hitting proved to be a problem all series. In all, the Mets finished the three games against the Cardinals a measly 1-for-29 with RISP. That’s just outright bad. They are hitting .162 with runners in scoring position, which ranks 29th in the major leagues.

Furthermore, the Mets have a 40.9% chase rate with RISP, which tells the story that hitters are getting too tight and are pressing. The relentless, disciplined approach we saw on Opening Day seems a million years ago. But, averaging just 2.4 runs per game overall, this team needs to figure out a way to get back to basics offensively, and return to what led to success in the first game of the season.

JUST A BAD EFFORT

What really stood out from the loss on Wednesday was just the all-around bad effort put forward by the team. It just wasn’t a good showing full stop. There were way too many physical and mental mistakes. The defense was bad. So was the baserunning. Some of the decisions at the plate were beyond poor. It was just a brutal display. And there is no excuse for the team to be this sloppy this early. You can’t win a pennant in April, but you can sure lose one. Dropping two of three games to a rebuilding St. Louis team just isn’t good enough. Yes, it is still early, but the Mets need to wake up, and fast. Half-hearted efforts aren’t acceptable at any point in the season.

The post 3 Up, 3 Down: Mets Drop Series To St. Louis appeared first on Metsmerized Online.