An underlying NY Mets statistic can help explain some of their September woes

What isn’t eating up the New York Mets at the moment? An early lead on Thursday seemed to hint at finally breaking their losing streak. They had Jesus Luzardo’s number with 4 early runs against the Philadelphia Phillies starter. He proceeded to have no issue for the rest of the night, retiring 22 straight to finish it off.

But that wasn’t the only problem with the Mets. David Peterson only gave them 5 innings. Worse was Reed Garrett pitching poorly and Brooks Raley then being unable to tightrope walk the Mets out of the inning.

It’s clear this team has problems everywhere you can look. One underlying statistic involving Pete Alonso can help explain a big part of it.

Pete Alonso has scored 2 runs all month, both came on home runs

His two home runs against the Detroit Tigers are the only times Alonso has crossed the plate for the Mets. His September hasn’t been fantastic, but he hasn’t collapsed either. Batting .244/.295/.463 after Thursday’s game, no other Mets player has driven him in. Equally as frustrating is how he has driven in only one other run this month. His RBI double a day after going deep twice is the only other run he has added.

It’s not as if he hasn’t had chances to score runs either. He had a 3-hit day in the team’s loss to the Tigers, including a double. Ronny Mauricio pinch ran for him after a leadoff single on Monday. Not even Mauricio could score in his place.

Brandon Nimmo has been the most regular culprit hitting behind Alonso and producing way too little out of the cleanup spot. He doesn’t have an extra-base hit this month. His hits have been scattered. In the second-half, he has only 4 home runs. He had 18 before the All-Star Break.

One player’s failure to score doesn’t completely summarize why the Mets are faltering. However, when one of your biggest hitters (who scored 20 times last month) is getting on base on a somewhat regular basis and even has 3 doubles, he needs to score.

Suddenly, the offense has shut down. Francisco Lindor is batting .176 in September. Mark Vientos is approaching the Mendoza Line fast midway through. No singular player or person is to blame. No one statistic proves all that’s wrong. Your regular number three hitter getting stranded and not providing the team with runs with his bat does help explain a lot, though. Rallies are coming to a halt in a spot in the lineup they can ill-afford to.