After Mets' tough road trip, Carlos Mendoza still 'confident in our guys'
The Mets held a 3-0 lead headed into the bottom of the sixth inning on Wednesday in Cleveland, but six-straight runs by the Guardians sealed a sweep and doomed New York to their sixth loss on the eight-game road trip.
“Tough road trip, it was a tough one,” manager Carlos Mendoza said after the game. “...Go home, day off tomorrow, re-group, and then back at it Friday. And start going here, because overall it was pretty tough.”
Overall, the Mets have now lost 10 of their last 13 games and after the 6-3 defeat, they fell to seven games below .500 with eight games remaining in the month of May. With his club 14 games behind in the NL East standings – and just 5.5 games ahead of last-placed Miami - is the manager worried the season is already beginning to slip away?
“We’ve got work to do, but I’m pretty confident in our guys here,” Mendoza said. “It’s just, you know, going through a tough stretch right now, but I’m pretty confident that the guys will continue to work and we’ll get through it.”
There are still 113 games to play, but does an increased sense of urgency start to creep in? “There’s always a sense of urgency, every game matters,” the skipper said.
After the Mets grabbed a win in Philadelphia, snapping a three-game losing skid against the Phillies, Mendoza said it would be important for the club to get on a roll over the final six games of the road trip. The Mets grabbed just one win over the next six in Miami and Cleveland.
“It happens,” the skipper said after a slight shrug. “Guys are competing. From the offensive side, I feel like guys are putting together really good at-bats, right now we’re just not putting them together. But I’m pretty sure, I’m pretty confident the guys will continue to work, and starting Friday, we’ll get something going here.”
When asked what is giving him that confidence, Mendoza said there are a “lot of guys with really good at-bats now” pointing to seeing signs from Francisco Lindor, who doubled twice on Wednesday, and Jeff McNeil, who homered, improving.
"Up and down the lineup, you're getting contributions. And now we gotta put it together and start playing complete games,” he said.
For the pitching, there were “ups and downs,” during the road trip, too.
“It’s one of those where when we’re pitching we’re not getting the timely hitting and then when we’re hitting, you know? So we just gotta start playing complete games,” Mendoza said. “Finishing games when we have to, putting quick zeroes, shutdown innings when we score and right now, we’re having a hard time doing that.”
The next steps for Mendoza and the Mets? “A little bit of everything.”
“We gotta regroup, as a coaching staff, see some of the things that we need to get better at,” he said. “But you’re always looking for ways to improve whether that’s pitching, defense, hitting, base running, every area you’re always looking for a way to improve. And we’ll get together and we’ll get these guys going.”
