Mets Are Forced to Focus On Themselves Now

Well, folks, it looks like the New York Mets picked the wrong time to hit the skids.

After finishing up a 5-6 homestand last weekend, many of us looked at the upcoming seven-game road trip against the Miami Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies as a way to finally put some distance between themselves and the rest of the NL East.

That happened, but not in the way anyone associated with the Mets had hoped. A 1-6 road trip, coupled with New York’s first four-game losing streak of the season, not only has them just one game above .500, but also in third place behind the Phillies and Atlanta Braves. For the three months New York was in first place and never pulled away, the de facto statement was, “Well, at least they’re still in first place.”

Obviously, this is no longer the case. Things stayed tight enough that one bad streak from the Mets and one hot streak from another team could change the complexion of the NL East, and here we are. Sunday’s post-game press conference oozed with a message to keep the faith, most notably from Pete Alonso, but with 13 straight games coming soon against the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers, that’s a tough sell. Especially after what transpired over this past week.

Plus, it didn’t take long for the Mets’ playoff odds (via FanGraphs) to go from about 75% — where it’s hovered for most of the year — all the way down to where it currently is heading into Tuesday’s series opener against the Washington Nationals:

Checking in on the Phillies, Braves & Mets chances to win the NL East pic.twitter.com/tj8u77L1Mk

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) August 8, 2021

Yeesh, talk about a free fall. What are the positives here? A pessimist would say nothing and that the season’s done, but I’m not one of those people. Does it look dire for the Mets with the way they’ve been playing? You betcha. But hey, it could be worse.

This could be happening in the last week of the season (again). There are still 51 games left to play, and 27 of those are within the division. And, just in case you were wondering, all but six are against the Marlins and Nationals, which should theoretically be a good thing. Although the Mets tumbled out of first place this week, the deficit is only 2.5 games, and as we just saw, all it takes is one hot streak to drastically change the divisional standings.

Before New York was swept out of Philly this past weekend, manager Luis Rojas had some interesting things to say prior to Friday night’s game. He was asked about the prospect of falling out of first if the Mets lost the series opener against the Phillies. Here’s what he had to say (quote via SNY):

“That can’t get in our heads. That’s just outside of what we have to do here. … The task at hand is to win every day, and that’s what we have to do tonight. But if we go into the game just thinking of the standings and what are we losing, it’s just not healthy for what we want our competition in tonight’s game. Hitters got to worry about the opposing pitcher and what pitches they’re looking for. A pitcher’s got to worry about a pitching plan against all those really good big-league hitters that we’re gonna see tonight. There’s no room for [that] thought process, I think, in our team on a day-to-day basis. I think there’s only room to focus on the game. And I’ve been consistently saying that since day one, and I’m gonna stay firm thinking of that. We can’t think of the standings and where we are, what we’re losing, or what we’re gaining.”

There will be those on both sides here — some who think it’s absolutely part of the Mets’ job to be concerned about the standings, and others who think it’s necessary to be aware, but not have it dominate their thought process. I’m the latter among these two thought processes. Thinking this way can be difficult for us fans because as the Mets played .500 ball between June and July, we were constantly peeking at the Phillies and Braves to see how New York’s divisional lead was impacted by the lackluster play.

It wasn’t a big deal for the majority of the year, but it is now. Mets hitters are obviously pressing because they want to snap out of this funk, but it was probably hard to block out the fact that each loss over the weekend put them a game further behind the top spot in the division. Now that they don’t fully control their own destiny and also have to leapfrog not one, but two teams to feel that feeling again, it’s probably more important than ever to ignore the out-of-town scoreboard.

Rojas is right in the fact that it’s “not healthy” to do such a thing because it only creates more pressure, and the players have enough to deal with in that department. Plus, scoreboard watching does absolutely nothing when you can’t win the games you’re playing. The only thing this club needs to be focused on right now is figuring out how to spark the hot streak we’ve been waiting for since they went 17-9 in May. The toughest part of all will be getting those first one or two wins because just about everything feels difficult right now for this team. They know they can do it, but knowing and actually doing it are two different kinds of confidence boosters.

Looking for inspiration elsewhere, let’s not forget that the 2016 club looked dead in the water as late as August 19th — they were 5.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot with a 60-62 record. They had to go on an absurd run to even have a chance at the postseason…and they did it by going 27-13 down the stretch.

That coincided with guys like Asdrubal Cabrera and Yoenis Cespedes getting healthy. Getting impact players like Francisco Lindor and Jacob deGrom would certainly help in this current pursuit. Their impending returns are still unclear, so the Mets just need to focus on themselves, the players who are on the active roster, and the games they’re playing.

At this point in the year, it’s the only thing they have left to focus on.

The post Mets Are Forced to Focus On Themselves Now first appeared on Metsmerized Online.