Mets hold players-only team meeting after another blowout loss to Pirates
Carlos Mendoza of the Mets argues with umpire Roberto Ortiz after being ejected in the fifth inning during the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on Saturday in Pittsburgh. Credit: Getty Images/Justin Berl
PITTSBURGH — The players-only meeting lasted less than a half-hour on the heels of a dispiriting 9-2 loss to the Pirates on Saturday. About six or seven players spoke, and though no one seemed to want to go into detail, themes emerged: cohesion, communication and community.
Oh, and winning. The Mets need more winning.
“It’s very interesting, because we’re in a position where we’re taught to keep things inside,” said Francisco Lindor, one of the speakers Saturday. “Then all of a sudden, you start seeing guys talking. We all go through the same thing, it seems like we’re all going through the same thing at the same time, so why not talk a lot? It’s good. A group of guys talked and, to a point, it makes you not feel alone. It makes you feel like you are playing a team sport.”
It’s simple, of course, but after a pivotal team meeting last year — the one that so many credited with turning the season around — there might be a tendency to lean on the magical. Instead, Lindor and Brandon Nimmo painted the meeting as practical.
“I won’t get into the details of it, but we’ve just got to pick each other up and stay behind each other,” said Nimmo, who didn’t speak in the meeting. “We’re just not playing baseball — as a team, we’re not playing very well right now. There are mistakes all over the field that you can point at . . . Be open to [asking questions] and just be behind guys. Don’t belittle anyone, don’t put anyone down, try to be that person that’s always lifting people up.”
The Mets (48-36) have lost 12 of their last 15. On Sunday, they will attempt to avoid their third sweep in the last two weeks — this after having not been swept once before the Rays did it on June 15.
It’s particularly brutal to have it happen against the Pirates (34-50), who’ve swept only one other team this year. They also have the second-lowest batting average in the National League and have outscored the Mets 18-3 over two games. The Mets registered only one hit in the final 4 2⁄3 innings Saturday.
“This is not a rah-rah [meeting], not an ‘oh, now the season is going to turn around,’ ” Lindor said. “We’re competing still. We’re one game out of first place and we’re in the top of the wild card [standings]. This is not a magic thing. This has nothing to do with that. No one is hoping for that. This is not how it works. If that’s how it worked, we would have done it a while ago.”
Magic won’t cut it anyway, given that the Mets’ recent woes have been expansive and varied.
They lost starting pitchers Tylor Megill, Kodai Senga and Griffin Canning to the injured list — Canning for the rest of the year — and are navigating a setback in Sean Manaea’s recovery. Their bullpen, which of late has been porous, is thoroughly depleted. Lindor and Pete Alonso, another of Saturday’s speakers, are slumping, and the team’s poor situational hitting has been destabilizing. Their .218 average with runners in scoring position is worse than only the White Sox.
They’ve also been plagued by misfortune. That was evident Saturday when Carlos Mendoza learned just before first pitch that the expected weather interruption was coming sooner rather than later. The Mets, though, were in a tight spot: With Paul Blackburn about to take the hill, they hoped to get some length from him before the rain rolled in. Instead, the storm hit in the second inning.
The Mets were leading 1-0 up until that point and endured an 89-minute rain delay. Whereas Blackburn generally would have been pulled after that, the worn-down bullpen meant that he would have to gut it out. He got up and threw high-intensity pitches every 20 minutes or so, but when he returned to the game, the Pirates pounced.
Blackburn allowed five straight singles to kick off the second and was lifted for Jose Butto with the Mets down 2-1. Butto allowed an inherited runner to score.
“Obviously, not an easy [decision],’’ said Mendoza, who was ejected in the fourth for arguing balls and strikes. “But given where we are bullpen-wise, especially in this stretch of the last 12 days where we haven’t gotten length out of our starters, [it felt needed].
“I was obviously pretty frustrated then, knowing where we were bullpen-wise,” he said of discovering that the rain was slated to hit 30 minutes into the game.
“That was kind of bizarre that we started the game if that’s what was coming,” said Blackburn, who allowed three runs and six hits with no walks and two strikeouts in one inning plus five batters.
Brandon Waddell did an admirable job tossing three scoreless innings, but the Mets, playing in the 12th of 13 straight, still ended up using five relievers. The duo of Huascar Brazoban, who’s struggled in three of his last four outings, and Colin Poche, recalled Friday, allowed six runs in the eighth.
Shortly after, the meeting was called. To hear the players tell it, it occurred organically.
“We’re all pulling for each other,” Lindor said. “It’s natural [to put too much pressure on yourself]. We’re all professionals here, but we’re humans as well. Everybody wants to get it done. We all want it just as bad. We go through ups and downs in a season and this is adversity and we’ve got to deal with it. It’s good to look each other in the eye and understand we’re all going through it.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
