Often over the course of this difficult season, you’ll hear Buck Showalter or one of his players say that eventually, guys will seek their level.
In the early going, it was a comforting concept — the idea that a team so similar to the one that won 101 games last year was capable of performing like that again.
But on days like Thursday — a messy 6-2 loss to the White Sox that felt typical of this year’s Mets — it takes on a different flavor.
Sure, the Mets have had a good July thus far, and yes, they’ve benefited from some markedly improved starting pitching, but they can still lose by seeking their 2023 level: a few key injuries, sloppy defense, dormant bats and a porous bullpen.
Pete Alonso’s error and Drew Smith’s pitching led to four runs in the sixth inning, and every Mets player not named Omar Narvaez did a whole lot of nothing against White Sox starter Michael Kopech.
“Caring and wanting something is a double-edged sword,” said Alonso, who’s hitting .093 over his last 12 games and has visibly taken on the burden of an underperforming team. “Obviously, if you care too much, then it leads to mounting pressure and that’s not necessarily good. I mean, [the band] 38 Special said it best: You’ve got to hold on loose. If you hold on tight, you lose control.”
That’s not exclusive to Alonso in a Mets season where little has gone right.
On the same day the Mets placed Starling Marte on the 10-day injured list because of recurring migraines, Tommy Pham — one of their most productive hitters and most intriguing trade chips — had to be taken out of the game after trying to leg out a grounder and coming up lame in the third.
All of it combined to put a damper on an otherwise promising start by Jose Quintana in his long-awaited 2023 debut — a performance where he started off rocky but appeared to get stronger and more confident as the afternoon went on. It was also a disappointing end to a three-game winning…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply