Mets’ Hitting Woes Continue Into A’s Series

The New York Mets have not scored a run in 17 innings.

They were shut out on Friday by the A’s, who recorded back-to-back shutouts for the first time since 2024.

The Mets scattered six hits across nine innings in a 4-0 loss. They were in the game for eight innings, down 1-0 entering the ninth.

But they could never scratch a rally together. They also drew just one walk.

The Mets have now lost three straight to drop their record to 7-7. It may be early, but it raises an apparent question around the club: Where’s the offense?

The Mets have scored one run in their last two games and three over their last three.

Of course, the Mets are without Juan Soto right now, which has a domino effect on the lineup. But there are still guys in the lineup they expect to be hitting. Francisco Lindor is going through another April slump, and Bo Bichette hasn’t gotten going yet. The only hitters who are really going well right now are Luis Robert Jr., Francisco Alvarez, and Jared Young — the last of whom was bumped up to third in the order on Friday.

For the first four innings on Friday, the Mets were held to just one hit against former Mets farmhand J.T. Ginn. He retired the first seven Mets. New York didn’t record a base hit until a bunt by Young in the fourth, which took a fortunate roll to stay fair.

The Mets’ best chance to score came in the sixth, when Lindor and Bichette — the two slumping stars — both singled, putting runners on the corners with nobody out. The A’s got out of it with a pair of ground balls.

Overall, the Mets’ scoring chances were limited. They only had three at-bats with runners in scoring position, and they didn’t capitalize on any of them.

No Met had a multi-hit game. The six hits were a split between the three guys seeing it well — Robert, Alvarez and Young — and three guys with sub-.600 OPS’s: Lindor, Bichette and Carson Benge. All six hits were singles.

Benge’s struggles have become a focus as they’ve continued. If Soto wasn’t hurt, he’d likely be in more immediate danger of being sent down. But with Tommy Pham knocking on the door, that very well still could be in Benge’s immediate future.

Friday did bring a small light of hope for Benge. He singled in the eighth, and he was robbed of a hit earlier in the game on a nice play by none other than Jeff McNeil.

In fact, McNeil had a couple of nice plays in his first game against his old team.

Alvarez drew the Mets’ only walk.

In the end, zero extra-base hits, no multi-hit performances and only one walk wasn’t a recipe for success.

Six of the nine starters in the Mets’ lineup have OPS’s below .600 on the young season.

The Mets’ offense has been a bit all-or-nothing so far. They’ve scored 56 runs through their first 14 games. Thirty of those runs came over three games. The Mets have averaged just 2.36 runs in their other 11 games.

So despite a few outbursts, the offense hasn’t clicked the way David Stearns drew it up in the offseason. There are still some silver linings Mets fans can point towards. Lindor and Bichette are bound to heat up. Soto should be back by May. Benge showed some positive signs Friday, but if he continues to struggle, then Pham might be a reinforcement. One would also reasonably expect Brett Baty (.599 OPS) and Marcus Semien (.557) to settle into better numbers as time goes on.

And as we saw on Opening Day, this offense can be deep and relentless when it’s going right. There are plenty of weapons; they just need to shift into place. And there’s a 148-game sample left to make that happen.

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