3 Mets players who need to permanently get their act together before it's too late

There's a scene in Kill Bill where Uma Thurman's character is asked, "You didn't really think it was gonna be that easy, did you?" to which she replies, "You know, for a second there, yeah, I kinda did."
I can't help but think of this movie, and this scene in particular, when I think about the New York Mets season. Both the Mets and Thurman's "the Bride" are on death's door early on — the Mets due to their own slow start to the season, and the Bride due to a brutal assassination attempt by her former co-workers. Midway through, the script flipped, with the Mets putting together the best month in baseball and the Bride well on her way towards getting revenge.

It's never that easy, though — not in a Quentin Tarantino movie, and certainly not for the Mets. Deep down, Mets fans know this, even if we forget sometimes, such as when the team briefly held the top Wild Card spot in the National League about three weeks ago.

The wheels have come off since then, and though the Bride had to fend off the Crazy 88's in order to reach her ultimate goal in the scene I described above, the Mets have only had to overcome the likes of the Angels, Rockies, and A's to retain their place in what has become a crowded N.L. playoff race. The Mets being the Mets, though, that's proven to be a difficult task, as they managed just a 4-5 record against those three lowly teams, with a three-game, butt-whooping sweep at the hands of the Mariners thrown in for good measure.

Other teams in the National League have seized the opportunity to surge past the Mets, most notably the Padres and the defending N.L. champion Diamondbacks, each of whom has been scorching hot in recent weeks. The Mets have even fallen two games behind the listless Braves, who are still in the race despite losing the defending N.L. MVP and the N.L. Cy Young favorite months ago.

We know it's not going to be easy for the Mets to get back to the playoffs this year, because things never come easy for the Mets. If a postseason appearance has any chance at all of happening, though, these are three players that need to get their butts in gear for the stretch run.

1) Francisco Alvarez

It pains me to say this, but Francisco Alvarez hasn't done much to help the Mets in well over a month.

The Mets as a team have suffered a significant power outage in recent weeks after crushing the ball in July and late June. Such a decline was inevitable, as they were never going to be able to sustain a 5+ runs per game pace. Certain players that outperformed expectations, like Jose Iglesias, have come back to earth, but the Mets need their stars to step up if they're to get this thing across the finish line.

That means that Alvarez, who even at 22 is already a core part of this team, needs to rediscover the swing that put him in league with the likes of Johnny Bench in the record books last year. Alvarez has just one homer in his last 32 games while being outplayed by backup Luis Torrens, who is on his third team this year.

Alvarez's OPS since the start of July is barely over .560, an abysmal number that's relegated him to eighth or ninth in the batting order most days. Worse yet, he's scored only seven runs in that time frame, even with the consistently excellent Francisco Lindor hitting a spot or two after him.

Pete Alonso has shown signs of waking up recently with a four-hit game against the A's and a two-homer game against the Rockies. Mark Vientos has continued raking, and even Jeff McNeil has come alive, but this lineup can only reach its full potential when Alvarez is acting like the best young slugging catcher in baseball. He needs to find his swing before it's too late.

3) Brandon Nimmo

Every manager wants to put his best hitters at the top of the lineup, and Brandon Nimmo has always been one of the Mets' best hitters, which is why he's batted leadoff for most of his career. While Grimace got more than his share of the credit for the Mets turning things around this year though, the season was really kick-started around the time that Carlos Mendoza swapped Nimmo for Francisco Lindor in the leadoff spot.

That isn't to blame Nimmo for the way the Mets underperformed before then, as Lindor has unequivocally been the Mets' best hitter. What he can be blamed for is what he's done since then, which is close to nothing. Nimmo is batting well below the Mendoza line since the beginning of July, which coincides with the scary hotel room accident in which he fell unconscious during a late-night trip to the bathroom. He hasn't indicated that he's feeling any after-effects from that ordeal, but there has to be some explanation for the worst stretch of his career.

It's not like Nimmo has been sent to the bottom of the lineup. He's mostly hit second in the order, which shows how much faith Mendoza has in him. Unfortunately, he's rewarded that faith by giving the Mets close to nothing in well over a month, and the team is really feeling the effects.

Most Mets fans believed that Nimmo was snubbed from the All-Star team, and they had a point. With an OPS over .800, Nimmo was right there with the other top outfielders in the National League, but since then, he's fallen off the metaphorical cliff until a big home run on Friday out of the number three spot.

The Mets have done well to get themselves into contention after an ugly start to the season. If the playoffs are to become a reality, though, Alvarez, Severino, and Nimmo need to do their part. Nobody said it was going to be easy.