3 infuriating Mets takeaways from their series loss to the Phillies

2) The Mets remain too reliant on home runs, one big inning

At some point the Mets offense became a one-inning type of team. It seems like every day they score in only one or two innings. There’s never a game where they scratch together a run in the first on a sacrifice fly, back-to-back two out doubles in the second, come home on a wild pitch in the third, and cap it off with a three-run home run in the fourth. The Mets skipped right to the three run home run.

What we saw from the Mets offense on Friday against the Phillies was brilliant. But it was also pouring the whole bottle of syrup onto the waffle. It was welcomed to see after a series against the Toronto Blue Jays when they waited until the 9th inning to even get a hit. In their Monday game, it took scoring twice late without putting the ball in play to get the win.

Mets hitters have been miserable for most of September and it didn’t change in Philadelphia outside of Friday. A one-time murmur perhaps? Those double-digit run-scoring games are enjoyable but oftentimes a fluke. It was not a game to get Brandon Nimmo or Francisco Alvarez red hot after all.

The Mets offense is only capable of being good in theory right now. And even when they do score, there’s one more element to spoil the day.

3) The Mets bullpen is too untrustworthy to go far in the playoffs

It was a combination of Danny Young and Reed Garrett on Saturday who blew it for the Mets. Let’s not forget that even on Friday Alex Young wasn’t so stable. Come Sunday, it was the usually trustworthy Diaz to take the loss.

We can deep dive into who gets the blame with some of these calls over the weekend. Should Carlos Mendoza have gone to Danny Young on Saturday? Against conventional wisdom in a tie on the road, was Diaz the correct choice on Sunday? The choices Mendoza did go with aren’t the real debate here. Instead, the focus should be more on the inability of these guys to simply get the job done.

The 2024 Mets bullpen has shown signs of brilliance at times and looked more like the Dark Ages at others. Which era are we in right now? Mendoza is pushing his starters deeper into games to eliminate at least one inning where he must call upon a reliever. It’s still not enough, apparently, as we saw Severino and Peterson each give up runs late. Having an arm they could trust might have yielded different results. Walking J.T. Realmuto in the ninth wouldn't have hurt much either.

The Mets do have some good bullpen arms and then the drop off is huge. Ryne Stanek, Adam Ottavino, and others just seem to be familiar names with experience and not much else.

While the Mets played the trade deadline a little timid for guys like Stanek, Phil Maton, and Huascar Brazoban, the San Diego Padres sent a king’s ransom to the Florida teams for Jason Adam in one deal and Tanner Scott plus Bryan Hoeing in a separate trade. They have respective ERAs of 0.45, 2.33, and 0.90 in a combined 59.1 innings. It wouldn’t have made a big enough difference but golly, they’ve gotten their money’s worth.