OAKLAND – Two Sundays ago, the Mets played a game against the Giants in which they scored 12 runs in eight innings.
Over their past six games heading into last night, they scored 14 runs in 57 innings.
The Mets’ lineup is not producing, and, as a result, the Mets are not winning. The pitching has not been bad during this recent skid of five losses in six games, and though the defense has committed some costly errors (especially David Wright’s miscue in Sunday’s loss to the Angels), the lack of offense is the true issue right now.
“Really, it’s just the ups and downs of the season,” Willie Randolph said after Tuesday’s 5-0 loss to the A’s. “You get into those little spurts where you sometimes struggle for runs.
“We talked a little bit more about being more selective in RBI situations and picking up little runs and stuff. They know that, obviously. But sometimes you give credit to the pitcher or sometimes you hit the ball hard at someone, so it’s a combination of different things.
“But bottom line is, that’s baseball. That’s part of the season. If you can figure it out, it wouldn’t happen that way. So we’ll just keep playing. We’ll keep making adjustments and we’ll get our share of our hits and we’ll turn it around.”
Randolph is probably right. In a six-month season in which teams play 162 games, they are bound to go through ups and downs, hot streaks and cold slumps. But the Mets (32-32) can’t afford to have too many poor stretches. They already were in last place in the NL East, 5 ½ games out of first entering last night’s game against the A’s, chasing four other division rivals.
If the Mets do not start hitting and lose more ground, soon it won’t matter when they start to pick it up.
Of the recent losses, Tuesday night’s probably was the worst, certainly the most humiliating. The Mets did not have a baserunner until there were two outs in the top of the fifth. The hurler who was shutting them down was Oakland rookie Joe Blanton, who took a 1-6 record and a 6.13 ERA into the game.
After the game, Doug Mientkiewicz said, “If you don’t feel embarrassed for what we did tonight, you shouldn’t be here.”
With runners on base, the Mets went 1-for-5 Tuesday, 0-for-3 with men in scoring position. In their six-game funk, the Mets had gone 14-for-75 (.187) with men on base, 8-for-47 (.170) with them in scoring position.
Few Mets had been productive lately. Jose Reyes was in a 1-for-14 slump. Kazuo Matsui was in an 0-for-9 slide. Carlos Beltran was 1-for-15, and David Wright was 2-for-15.
It’s possible the Mets could change the lineup or insert new players to help spark the lumber, but Randolph does not have that many options. Tuesday, ailing Mike Cameron (left finger, right knee) sat out, Victor Diaz played right field, and Marlon Anderson was the designated hitter.
“We might make adjustments,” Randolph said after Tuesday’s game. “We’ll see what happens overnight and come in tomorrow and put the best team out there.”
For the Mets’ sake, they need to hope whoever is on that team can get hot.
