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6 Mets players to blame for terrible weekend in Tampa
Even one of their stars had an uncharacteristically bad weekend.
It was not fun to watch the New York Mets play baseball this weekend. The Mets got swept in a 3-game series on the road for the first time this season, and that was from the Tampa Bay Rays, who had struggled coming into the weekend before outplaying the Mets in nearly every phase this weekend. And there are certainly names to name after the Mets fell to 16-18 on the season.
It was a combination of a lack of timely hitting, poor starting pitching, poor defense, and untimely bad outings from their key relievers. So there are six players most to blame for the Mets woes this weekend.
No. 1 New York Mets player to blame for bad weekend: Pete Alonso
Pete Alonso had a rough weekend back home in Tampa, as he went just 1-for-12 in the three game series and now has just one hit in his last 28 at-bats. Many of Alonso's at-bats were non-competitive, he kept chasing pitches outside the strike zone, and did not make much great contact.
More importantly, Alonso could not bring runners in when he had to. The best example of that was on Sunday. He had two opportunities to do major damage with the bases loaded early. He popped out in the third inning, and then grounded into an inning-ending double play the next inning. Alonso's inability to cash in kept the Rays in the game and made them feel like they had a chance to win.
Pete Alonso is now just .138 (4-for-29) with RISP this season, after hitting .257 in that split last year and .300 the year before. Alonso has to make a better approach with men in scoring position soon.
No. 2 New York Mets player to blame for bad weekend: Jeff McNeil
The other Mets regular with a frustrating weekend was Jeff McNeil. McNeil went 1-for-11 in the series with 5 strikeouts. including three punchouts in Sunday's loss. But really, many of the at-bats were either quick or not competitive. He only had one RBI chance, and he struck out swinging with the bases loaded to end the third inning on Sunday.
McNeil had only struck out three times in a game just eight times in 704 games before Sunday's whimper, and has just one hit in his last 18 at-bats. Sounds like mechanical adjustments are needed with McNeil (and Alonso).
No. 3 New York Mets player to blame for bad weekend: Tomas Nido
The Rays running game was hyperactive over the weekend, especially on Sunday. And the scouting reports on Tomas Nido (and Omar Narvaez) justify it. Including seven steals on Sunday, opposing baserunners have stolen 59 bases while only getting caught 4 times, meaning a 93.6 percent stolen base percentage. That is simply unacceptable, given that the Mets have had trouble holding runners on base constantly for at least a decade now. This weekend, two runners who stole bases scored on two-out singles, which were both backbreaking.
It also didn't help Nido that his bat was silent in Tampa, as he went just 1-for-9 in the series. But, Omar Narvaez went 2-for-2 this series, and only caught five of the 28 innings in this series.
No. 4 New York Mets player to blame for bad weekend: Jose Quintana
Jose Quintana started Friday's game, and he got rocked. He gave up eight runs and 10 hits while recording just eight outs. His game score of 7.0 was the lowest any Mets starter has had in a game this season (yes, even worse than any of Adrian Houser's lousy outings). It was the one game this weekend the Mets offense decided to show up, but the game was out of reach before the Mets tried to mount a miraculous comeback.
Quintana was coming off a performance where he pitched eight innings against the Cardinals in the start prior, so it made Friday's performance even worse.
No. 5 New York Mets player to blame for bad weekend: Edwin Diaz
Edwin Diaz looked not bad overall on Sunday in his first save opportunity in three weeks. He got the first two hitters out, but he gave up the game-tying home run to Randy Arozarena with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the 9th inning on a hanging slider.
What's more disturbing is that in his outing, he threw 15 sliders to just 2 fastballs (with 2 unknown pitches), and when the save was still on the line, he only threw his slider. Two years ago, Diaz had one of the most electrifying fastballs out there with his slider being an automatic wipeout pitch. There is certainly a part of Diaz's confidence that is shot right now and it needs work fast, because if the Mets want to make the playoffs, they'll need to get Diaz back to his 2022 days.
This marked Diaz's first blown save since May 24, 2022 and when the Rays won Sunday's game in extras, Sunday's loss also marked the Mets' first loss of the season when leading after eight innings (they were previously 13-0 in such situations).
No. 6 New York Mets player to blame for bad weekend: Adam Ottavino
On Saturday, Adam Ottavino was tasked to keep Saturday's game tied at one in the bottom of the eighth inning, and he couldn't get the job done. He gave up a couple of singles and two walks, including a bases loaded walk to Austin Shenton with two outs and two strikes. He could not execute his putaway pitches, and it allowed someone like Shenton, Tampa Bay's No. 7 prospect on MLB Pipeline, to stay in the at-bat and outwork the veteran reliever.
Ottavino was charged with the loss on Saturday and another earned run when Sean Reid-Roley walked Jose Caballero with the bases loaded immediately afterwards. Ottavino also saw his scoreless appearance streak at nine outings come to an end, and saw his ERA jump from 1.54 to 2.92.
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