It’s too early to panic.
The Mets weren’t as good as the red-hot team that started 13-3 and they aren’t as bad as they’ve been in losing three straight series. That was Sandy Alderson’s message as his injury-weakened team licked its wounds during Monday’s off day.
“I’m happy with the way the team has played,” the Mets general manager told The Post. “We were never as good as 11-0 and we’re not as bad as 3-7. We’re somewhere in between. We still have to find that point.”
The first-place Mets (16-10) have lost seven of their last 10 games, dropping series’ to the Yankees, Marlins and Nationals. The offense — minus linchpins David Wright (hamstring) and Travis d’Arnaud (broken hand) — has struggled. It produced just six runs in a four-game set with the Nationals, and was shut out, 1-0, on Saturday and Sunday. Alderson agreed with manager Terry Collins’ take on Sunday that a major issue is plate discipline, the Mets chasing bad pitches out of the strike zone. They walked just seven times against the Nationals.
But he doesn’t plan on going outside the organization to address the lineup, particularly since Wright shouldn’t be out for much more than another week and d’Arnaud isn’t expected to be out too much longer, if his hand heals as hoped.
“We have to do better and we expect we will starting with Baltimore,” Alderson said of the two-game set with the Orioles that begins Tuesday night at Citi Field. “We’ve got several guys who we expect [to get] more offensive production from. There’s no reason to go out and get more players. We’re still happy with the ones we have, and we’ll see over a somewhat longer period of time how they perform.”
Of course, the Mets were also facing the pitching-rich Nationals, and just failed to come through in a few clutch situations. Of their most recent seven losses, the Mets have lost four games by two runs or less.
“The confidence is extremely high,” right fielder Curtis Granderson said in an interview with WFAN on Monday. “We ran into the good pitching staff of the Washington Nationals, arguably one of the best staffs in all of baseball.[Max] Scherzer and [Doug] Fister and Gio [Gonzalez] all pitched extremely well against us. That’s why this game gets frustrating and exciting at the same time.”
The middle of the lineup has struggled immensely. First baseman Lucas Duda is 6-for-24 in his last seven games, with just one extra-base hit. Left fielder Michael Cuddyer is 4-for-23 and shortstop Wilmes Flores is just 2-for-17. The Mets also have just 17 home runs, fifth fewest in the National League.
“It may be with a depleted lineup individual guys are trying to do a little more than they need to do,” Alderson said.
While the current slide has sapped some of the positive vibes from the opening hot streak, Alderson remains pleased with a number of team strengths, from the starting pitching to the surprisingly strong bullpen that remained consistent despite injuries to key members such as Jenrry Mejia, who was also suspended 80 games for the use of Stanozolol, and Jerry Blevins, and the all-around crisp play of center fielder Juan Lagares. Alderson also said in an interview on ESPN Radio he is still confident in Flores, despite the shortstop committing seven errors in 27 games — three more than he committed in 51 games at the position last year.
“We just need to let him settle down a little bit,” Alderson said.
He’s hoping the team does as well.
“We’re somewhere in the middle [of our two steaks] and I think we’re closer to the high end than the low end,” Alderson said. “We need to play well in May. Last year we had a winning April, not as well in May.
“I know things can turn on a dime. … This is a big month for us because we’re not going to get those guys back for most of the month. We’re going to have to do with what we have, and make sure that we [keep] our heads above water by the end of this month.”
