The New York Mets just keep finding new ways to lose. And after a doubleheader sweep Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs, lefty Sean Manaea walked into the clubhouse and didn’t bother with the usual athlete spin. He told it like it was.
“It’s not good,” Manaea said. “We’re playing not up to our capabilities. We know we’re better than this. And right now we’re playing really, really bad baseball.”
He wasn’t wrong. The nightcap was a disaster by any standard. The Mets lost 10-5, but the score didn’t fully capture the mess. Six defensive errors turned what could have been a competitive game into a laugher. Francisco Lindor, Marcus Semien, Bo Bichette, and Mark Vientos each had at least one miscue. Chicago didn’t need a single home run to pile up five unearned runs and cruise.
What made it worse? The Mets actually showed some life at the plate. Francisco Alvarez, AJ Ewing, Bichette, and Vientos all went deep. That’s four homers in a game where your defense lets you down that badly. It should have been a different outcome. But routine ground balls turned into rallies, and the Cubs took full advantage.
New York has now lost five straight. They’re 34-46, 12 games under .500. The season is starting to feel like it’s slipping away before the All-Star break even gets here.
Why this loss hits different
Manaea has been around. He’s pitched in big games, won division titles, seen what good baseball looks like. So when he says the Mets aren’t playing anywhere close to their standard, it lands differently than if it came from someone still figuring things out. He didn’t blame one play or one guy. He pointed at the whole team.
He threw 86 pitches over about three innings Wednesday. Six of the runs he allowed were earned. It wasn’t his sharpest outing, but it also wasn’t entirely on him. The defense kept putting him in spots where one bad pitch turned into a crooked number.
The Mets have a real problem right now. They can hit a little, pitch some, run the bases okay. But they can’t field. And in a league full of teams that will make you pay for mistakes, that’s a death sentence. Until they clean up the fundamentals, the mood in that locker room is only going to get worse.
New York doesn’t have much time to figure it out either. The schedule doesn’t let up.
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