Mets players frustrated after being swept by Braves: ‘We’re not playing well, we know it’
The 2023 Mets have been an up-and-down team all season, but being swept by the Braves this week may be a new low.
It’s not just they lost three straight to their rivals, and the team they are chasing in the NL East, but it’s the way they lost. Tuesday and Wednesday, the Mets blew a three-run lead in the sixth inning of each game and ultimately lost, but Thursday was probably worse.
Although Justin Verlander was not his sharpest, and Pete Alonso was not in the lineup, the offense put up 10 runs and it still wasn’t enough.
The Braves lineup chipped away at the Mets’ lead against the bullpen to walk it off in extras. It’s the first time in Mets franchise history they lost three straight games while leading by at least three runs in each of them.
“We’re frustrated, you can sense it. We’re not playing well, we know it,” David Robertson said after the game. “We’re a good team, we're just not doing what we need to do. We’re getting out of Atlanta and we’re going to Pittsburgh, hope to turn things around, take a series there. It’s a long season, we’re just in a slump right now. We have to pull ourselves out of it.”
With the injury to Edwin Diaz, Robertson has been the Mets’ best reliever. After Thursday, the 38-year-old has a 1.98 ERA in 24 outings this season. But one pitch to Orlando Arcia in the ninth inning tied the game.
Robertson threw a fastball high in the zone that Arcia got to and launched into stands.
“I threw the ball where I wanted to," Robertson explained. "It’s frustrating, he’s a good hitter. I really tried to get him to chase pitches earlier in the count just couldn’t get him to give me the swing and miss I needed. It’s frustrating because I made the pitch I wanted to make and it sucks.”
That game-tying homer came with one out in the ninth and with Robertson being asked to get a five-out save, but Thursday was one of those games where offense trumped pitching and it began with the starters.
While the Mets got to Spencer Strider for eight runs in four innings -- including a Brandon Nimmo grand slam -- Verlander didn’t give his team the length they needed, going only three innings and giving up five runs (four earned).
It was a sharp contrast from his last start where he gave up just one run in six innings. It’s also a microcosm of the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner’s inconsistent first season with the Mets.
“Feast or famine it seems. It is [a concern],” Verlander said after the game. “I’ve been working my ass off trying to make it click. Every time I think I've found it, it goes another direction. It's definitely frustrating for me and everybody. I have to keep working for it.”
Verlander, 40, says he’s feeling fine physically and all the metrics on his pitching from the last few seasons compared to this year is similar, so he’s trying to figure out what’s going on. He did point out that he thought his slider was a positive to take away from his outing.
Trying to stay positive while your team looks to not just stay in the hunt for the division but for a playoff spot is difficult. But that’s what manager Buck Showalter continues to preach and to find the positives in losses, even as devastating as the ones in this series.
"Guys came in and competed as good as you’d want to see. Scored 10 runs tonight against one of the best pitchers in the league and I'm proud of them,” he said. “There’s a lot of opportunities to fold the tent and these guys aren’t going to do that. I look at it as a positive other than we just couldn't get outs. Used every arrow we had. Just couldn’t get that last out."
With the Mets (30-33) now 8.5 games out of first place in the NL East and three games out of a playoff spot, it’s easy to believe the season is over, but there are 99 games remaining in their schedule.
Don’t forget, the Phillies -- who went on to the World Series -- were just 32-31 after 63 games last season, so there’s plenty of time to turn things around. And that’s exactly how Nimmo feels.
"It's not a fun stretch to go through, not how you envision things going,” Nimmo said of the Mets’ recent losing streak. “Your only option is to keep pushing and push through it. Put a lot of hope in that tomorrow you're gonna turn things around and at any instant you can turn things into a 10-game win streak. You have no other choice but to believe that unless you want to give up.”
The Mets now go to Pittsburgh for a three-game set against the 32-29 Pirates hoping to begin that elusive win streak that can turn their season around.
