It wasn’t the biggest hit of Pete Alonso’s career, but his walk-off, three-run homer in the 10th inning on Sunday was certainly the biggest for the New York Mets in their past nine games — and maybe their biggest of the campaign so far.
“He prolonged their season in 2024,” said Mets broadcaster Ron Darling, referring to Alonso’s ninth-inning home run to beat the Milwaukee Brewers in the wild-card series. “He might have saved their season in 2025.”
It didn’t sound like hyperbole, as the Mets had lost eight games in a row before securing Sunday’s 5-2 victory. They had watched the Philadelphia Phillies run out way ahead in a National League East division that the Mets once led and had watched their comfortable lead for the final wild-card spot shrink to half a game over the San Francisco Giants.
As only a die-hard Mets fan could understand — remember, this was a franchise that blew a seven-game lead with 17 games to play in 2007 to miss the playoffs — that eight-game skid was misery piled on top of more misery. The Mets lost twice to the Cincinnati Reds. They lost four in a row to Philadelphia, including a 1-0 decision and a blown 4-0 first-inning lead. On Friday, they lost to Jacob deGrom in his first game back at Citi Field since signing with the Texas Rangers. Then came the ultimate gut punch: They blew a 2-0 lead in the final two innings to the Rangers on Saturday, giving up two runs in the eighth and the winning run in the ninth. Eight losses in a row.
New York (77-73) insisted it wasn’t panicking, with Juan Soto saying after Saturday’s loss, “We have the energy. We have the guys. We have everything we need to go all the way.”
But do they? The Mets, featuring a $340 million payroll, the second highest in the game, have been among the worst teams in baseball since mid-June. On June 12, the Mets beat the Washington Nationals to improve to 45-24. They had the best record in the majors, led the Phillies by 5.5 games in the NL East and, according to FanGraphs, had a 75% chance of winning the division and a 96% chance of making the playoffs.
Since then, however, only the Colorado Rockies and the Minnesota Twins have had worse records, while the Nationals have matched the Mets at 32-49.
What happened? Let’s look at three main components of their game — the rotation, the bullpen and the offense — to see what has gone wrong.
1. The starting pitching got worse
Through June 12: 2.79 ERA (first in majors)
Since June 12: 5.09 ERA (24th)
Things got so desperate that the Mets are now featuring three rookies in their rotation in Nolan McLean (who made his MLB debut on Aug. 16), Jonah Tong (debuted Aug. 29) and Brandon Sproat (debuted Sept. 7). Needless to say, no team has won a World Series with three rookie starters in its rotation. It’s either an act of brazen confidence in inexperienced starters or the worst decision by the Mets since then-manager Terry Collins left Matt Harvey in to blow a 2-0 lead in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the 2015 World Series.
So far, however, the results have been acceptable, especially from McLean. He started on Sunday and pitched six scoreless innings, exiting with a 2-0 lead — which the Mets’ bullpen promptly blew. McLean is 4-1 with a 1.19 ERA in his six starts, has allowed one home run in 37⅓ innings and, if the Mets do make the playoffs, is the starter they should want out there in Game 1.
Sproat allowed three runs in six innings in his debut but followed that up with six scoreless innings against the Rangers on Saturday. Only Tong, who led the minor leagues in ERA and strikeouts when he was recalled, has scuffled, including a miserable outing on Friday when he had no fastball command and gave up six runs without escaping the first inning.
Still, the Mets can’t rely only on the youngsters. David Peterson and Clay Holmes have each exceeded career highs in innings and have been much less effective. Peterson had a 3.06 ERA at the All-Star break but 5.23 since; Holmes had a 3.31 ERA at the break but 4.72 since. Sean Manaea is 0-2 with a 7.71 ERA since the beginning of August and has now been demoted to the bullpen, where he will piggyback with Holmes. Kodai Senga, so good early in the season, got sent down to Triple-A after going 0-3 with an ERA over 6.00 in August.
Right now, even with McLean on a roll, this is not a championship rotation.
2. The bullpen has been worse … much worse
Through June 12: 2.82 ERA (second in majors)
Since June 12: 5.04 ERA (26th)
While the starters were pitching well during the first two months, they weren’t going deep into games. So, manager Carlos Mendoza relied heavily on his bullpen, running his top relievers other than closer Edwin Diaz into the ground. President of baseball operations David Stearns added reinforcements at the trade deadline, most notably hard-throwing St. Louis Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley.
Helsley, to put it bluntly, has been one of the worst trade acquisitions of all time. Not hyperbole. With the Mets, he is 0-3 with four blown saves and a 10.29 ERA in 17 appearances. He has allowed 20 runs and a .354 average. He throws 100 mph, and the ball comes back off the bat at 110 mph. He was expected to be Diaz’s top setup guy down the stretch, but Helsley has now been relegated to mop-up duty as he tries to figure things out.
The pen remains an issue. On Saturday, Mets play-by-plan man Gary Cohen described the circle of trust as just Brooks Raley, Tyler Rogers and Diaz. Rogers and Diaz promptly blew Saturday’s game. On Sunday, Raley blew the 2-0 lead and Diaz escaped a jam in the ninth when the Rangers lined into a double play with a runner on third and the infield pulled in. It took Ryne Stanek to rescue the day in the 10th inning when he escaped a first-and-third situation with a strikeout and a popout.
Right now, this does not look like a championship bullpen.
3. The offense has been inconsistent
Through June 12: .248/.332/.427, 4.6 runs per game
Since June 12: .250/.323/.425, 4.8 runs per game
It certainly wasn’t good during the eight-game losing streak, hitting .211 and scoring just 20 runs. But the Mets have had other stretches like this: an 0-7 skid in early August when they hit .203 and an 0-7 spell in June when they hit .205. Yep, that’s three different losing streaks of at least seven games. Rarely have Francisco Lindor, Soto and Alonso all been clicking at the same time.
This could be a championship-level offense, but it hasn’t been. The Mets are 11th in the majors in runs scored.
The Giants lost on Sunday, so the Mets’ lead for that final wild card is back to 1.5 games (and two games over the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2.5 on Cincinnati). The Mets also hold the tiebreaker over the Giants, so San Francisco will have to finish with the better record to make it to October.
“That win felt like a deep breath,” Stanek said after Sunday’s dramatic triumph.
Mets fans would agree. After eight days of agony, Citi Field exploded with joy as Alonso flipped his helmet and rounded the bases, reaching home plate with a bath of Dubble Bubble gum from his teammates. Baseball was fun again, the losing streak over.
But there are still 12 games to go — 12 games for the Mets to prove themselves worthy of joining the postseason tournament.
