THE METS RUN OUT OF GAS ON THE ROAD

The thing about good times is that you’ll spend them wondering when the bad times will come. Although entirely deserved and earned, the Mets improbable hot streak had fans waiting for the cracks to show in the armor. It serves as some sort of assurance that baseball is still a random sport and the universe is a cold place. We all want our sports teams to show weakness because perfection makes us think that something is amiss. Just look at the 2017 Houston Astros. Nobody wants their team to get caught cheating, no matter how cool it feels to be a villain. We want our teams to be dominant but also susceptible enough to keep games interesting. It’s fun to run up the scoreboard on easy mode, but nobody else in the room wants to see you beat Ohio State 100-0. After all, it’s supposed to be a competition.

We also want those weaknesses to loom their head at opportune times. As a part-time Dodger fan, I know all about this. Under Dave Roberts, the Dodgers have had a really bad habit of going full throttle until Labor Day. Then, they run out of gas and start losing to everybody. In the end, they still (almost) always win the division, but when it comes time to play in the Postseason, their winning ways are far behind them. The only time they were able to avoid this was in the sprint of a 2020 abridged season. And that’s how they won their sole World Series since the Reagan administration. Everybody wants their team to be like the Dodgers, but would rather their slumps come earlier in the season.

When the Mets traveled to the west coast, they didn’t crash land back to Earth, but rather leaked gas along the way. They started out hot, as Paul Blackburn had a sparkling team debut in a 5-1 rout of the Angels. They then proceeded to lose the next two games by one run. Not the best result that you would want against the dregs of the AL West, but that’s baseball. They then traveled to St Louis for a one-game makeup. Sean Manea struck out 10 and they served the Cardinals their third shutout loss of the season. After that, they zig-zagged back to Colorado, where they easily won 2 out of 3. Despite the hiccups in Anaheim, it seemed that the road trip would be a productive one.

And then they ran out of gas on the way to Seattle.

Just how bad did the series go? It took them 22 innings to score a run. That is their worst drought since May of 2014, when Juan Lagares was their leadoff batter. I was 100 pounds lighter and smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. It was different times, to say the least. The Mariners used their top guns, Bryce Miller and Logan Gilbert, to mow down the Met’s lineup on Friday and Saturday respectively. It wasn’t complete offensive ineptitude, as they garnered 6+ hits in all three games. Jeff McNeil, in particular, had a decent weekend. He earned the Mets sole run of the weekend with a blast to right field. But that was too little and too late, as they were trounced on National Television, 12-1.

This is it. The worst that we’ve seen the Mets in the Grimace Era. But the collapse in Seattle is still no reason to panic. After all, the Mariners are having a banner year. They’re tied for first in the West after spending all year on top and have the best home record in the American League. There’s no inherent shame in getting swept by them, albeit some shame in the manner that it happened. This is also the end of a really long road stretch. Since July 1, they have played 24 of 37 games on the road. Homesickness is not just something you experience at a lame slumber party, pro athletes feel it too and their stats suffer for it. Nothing about that series was conducive for success. So they got swept in epically bad fashion. We forget about it and move forward.

If this is just a slump and a blip on a successful season, then it came at the right time. They’re still only half a game away from the third Wild Card spot. If they can pick up the pieces, they could easily gain games on the injury-plagued Braves and fallible Diamondbacks and Padres. They can easily start that this week with a home series against the Athletics and Marlins. After that, the path gets murkier when they face the Orioles, Padres and Diamondbacks consecutively. This homestand is vital to getting back to their winning ways, pull their heads out of the water and start acting like the team that the nation fell in love with this summer.

Buckle up, kids. It’s gonna be a crazy month.