3 Up, 3 Down: Struggles Continue As Mets Swept By A’s

It was not a good weekend in New York baseball. And it was an especially tough weekend for the New York Mets.

The Mets were swept by the A’s in a series where their offense again failed to show up. Poor pitching and mental lapses also defined all three games.

As a result, the Mets have now lost five straight and have dropped to 7-9 on the year. Furthermore, they have scored just nine runs over that span, with six of those runs coming on Saturday.

And, on that note, let’s unpack everything from the A’s series in the latest edition of 3 Up, 3 Down …

3 UP

BEST OUTING YET

Freddy Peralta did everything he could to help the Mets win on Sunday. He delivered his best outing in a Mets uniform yet, allowing just one run on four hits and three walks over six innings, while striking out six. Unfortunately, the run support just wasn’t there to back up Peralta’s strong start. Nevertheless, the righty showcased just how dominant he can be, and hopefully, this is just the first of many stellar outings.

MOMENTS OF RELIEF

While positives were few and far between this weekend, there were some kernels of hope to latch on to. For instance, Craig Kimbrel looked good in his Mets debut on Saturday. The veteran tossed one inning of scoreless relief, allowing just one hit while striking out two. Although the sample size is small, Kimbrel showed that he could potentially become a significant part of this bullpen. Furthermore, Sean Manaea continues to impress in his new role. The lefty tossed three perfect innings on Sunday, striking out four in the process. Manaea kept the Mets in the game and is proving to be effective even with diminished velocity. With the offense struggling as much as it currently is, Manaea providinglength out of the bullpen is even more crucial.

SIGNS OF HOPE

Overall, this was another tough series for Francisco Lindor for reasons we’ll explain below. However, he did start to show signs of life offensively on Sunday. He hit two singles – half of the Mets’ total hits all game. That followed hits in the previous two games in the series, too. All in all, it was a nice afternoon that Lindor needed, and it offered some hope that he could be close to turning the corner at the plate. On the same note, Bo Bichette went 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBIs on Saturday, his best performance at the plate as a Met. Maybe that can be the spark he needs to now push on.

3 DOWN

HIT ABOUT

When a team isn’t hitting, that places even more onus on the starting pitcher to have a good outing on the mound. Unfortunately for the Mets, that wasn’t the case on Saturday. Kodai Senga was beaten up early and often, allowing seven earned runs on eight hits across just 2.1 innings. It was the first time in his career that Senga had given up seven earned runs or more in a game. The offense did try to fight back, and they made it close, but the damage was done by that point, thanks to one of Senga’s worst-ever outings as a Met.

SAME OLD STORY

We seem to be talking about the shortcomings of the offense a lot right now, and for good reason. While the lineup did hit six runs on Saturday, with Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco both hitting their first homers as Mets, the offense did nothing outside of that all series. For instance, the Mets were shut out twice by the A’s. They seemingly just can’t hit right now, and most of the at-bats look lifeless and devoid of any real contact.

As of Monday, the Mets have 129 strikeouts and rank near the bottom of baseball with only 19 home runs over the first 16 games. Furthermore, the Mets don’t have a single player with 10 RBIs, and just one player with 10 or more runs scored. Bichette has already struck out 19 times, which puts him on pace for a gaudy 192 strikeouts. And only Francisco Alvarez and Luis Robert Jr. have an OPS above .690.

All in all, the offense is the biggest problem facing this team right now, and it is costing them games at a high clip.

SLOPPY, UNINSPIRED BASEBALL

Watching the Mets just isn’t fun right now. The team is playing uninspired baseball and is committing sloppy mistakes at an incredibly high rate. In short, nothing seems to be going right. Francisco Lindor committed another costly brainfart on the basepaths on Friday night. The offense, as detailed above, has been awful. The team isn’t getting it done with runners in scoring position. The defense continues to be a huge fatal flaw. And, having started the season red-hot, Luke Weaverhas now put together back-to-back stinkers. He was bad again on Saturday, giving up four earned runs on just three hits and ruining the attempted comeback by the offense. In all, this team is playing fundamentally bad baseball and offering little in the way of hope. It is still early, but the Mets need to wake up and figure things out quickly.

The post 3 Up, 3 Down: Struggles Continue As Mets Swept By A’s appeared first on Metsmerized Online.