Mickey Callaway vents after Mets go 2-5 on west coast road trip

PHOENIX – Mickey Callaway chooses his spots.

He’s not a table flipper. He doesn’t call out players all that often. He sometimes seems to be the only one on the face of the planet who can see a positive in a blowout loss.

That’s why it’s noteworthy whenever Callaway is critical, like he was after Sunday’s listless 7-1 loss to the Diamondbacks at Chase Field that completed a 2-5 road trip.

“We have to do better. I’m kind of getting sick of saying we got to right the ship,” Callaway said. “We have to get it done.”

Sunday’s lopsided loss to the Diamondbacks concluded a trip full of frustration for Callaway and the Mets (28-31) since they easily had a chance to finish with a winning record.

The bullpen blew an 8-3 lead against the Dodgers on Wednesday, and wasted a 5-1 advantage in Saturday’s loss to the Diamondbacks.

Facing Merrill Kelly and his 4.83 ERA on Sunday with a chance to win the series, the Mets’ hitters instead turned Kelly into Jacob deGrom.

Kelly produced one of the best starts of his career, holding the Mets to just one run in 7.2 innings. The Mets didn’t have an at-bat with a runner in scoring position in the final six innings, and struck out 10 times against Kelly, who who is not a strikeout pitcher.

“That guy obviously had a good game,” Callaway said. “But we can’t allow people to have the best of their careers against us.”

As Kelly dominated, Steven Matz allowed five runs in six innings with three scoring in the first inning on homers by Ketel Marte and Eduardo Escobar.

Callaway seethed about his team’s defense, which came up short again.

Shortstop Amed Rosario failed to make a pair of tough plays in the fifth, which lead to a pair of runs, and J.D. Davis couldn't handle two balls. The Mets’ defense has been horrendous this season, failing to make big plays at opportune times.

The beleaguered bullpen later allowed two runs in the eighth inning.

“Overall game, bad defense, bad pitching, no offense,” Callaway said. “You’re going to lose when you have those.”

Callaway has often harped on his team’s inability to sync the hitting, pitching, and defense, and that inconsistency is frankly what has come to define this team.

A team that entered the year with high expectations due to Brodie Van Wagenen’s claim to “Come get us” has instead resembled a .500 club.

They don’t do anything particularly well.

The hitting can go hot and cold. The vaunted rotation has regressed. The bullpen is one of the worst in the league. The defense can be embarrassing.

There are times when the Mets can get hot, such as during their recent 6-1 homestand against the Nationals and Tigers. But they are now 13-22 on the road, and have dropped 15 of their last 19 road games.

The Mets are a manageable five games back in the NL East, but Philadelphia and Atlanta clearly seem to be better at this point.

“The reason we’re inconsistent is because we’re not where we need to be as players yet obviously or we’d be getting it done,” Callaway said. “We got to continue to be better, they got to continue to learn and continue to grow and continue to battle and see if we can get where we want to be.”

The players were more upbeat after the game than Callaway while noting that this road trip did not go as expected.

Arizona entered this series having been swept in Colorado.

“We know how a baseball season goes. Right now, we’re going through a little tough spot, but we still believe in each other and we’re still going to fight,” Mets infielder/outfielder Dom Smith said. “We know what we’re capable of doing and how good we can be. Eventually, we’ll get there. Hopefully sooner than later.”

Callaway has reason to stress urgency since ultimately he will be the one who takes the fall if this team underachieves. The Mets held a press conference before the last homestand to announce they would not fire him – yes, that actually happened – but he could still be axed if the season goes south.

He's only safe for the foreseeable future, per his general manager. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Extended stretches of poor play will raise questions about his job, even if the flaws of the roster don’t lie on his shoulders.

“We played great at home and we go on the road, and what we did on the road is not acceptable,” Callaway said. “We put ourselves in a position to win more games than we did but we lost them. It doesn’t matter what position you put yourself in, you have to go get the job done.”

He added: “We can get back in this thing very easily.”