New York Mets merit embarrasing home stand this week

The New York Mets had an abysmal home stand which has put them in the gutter of the NL East. Can they find a way to make up ground?

This is the week the Mets could have righted the ship and snuck themselves back to a .500 record. The Washington Nationals were slowly coming into view at the top of the division, and five or six wins would have lessened the gap between the two.

Instead, they dropped four of their seven games, moving to 24-31 on the season, sealing the deal on a bad and embarrassing homestand and further pushing themselves into the abyss of irrelevancy and no postseason play.

The week started off well for the Mets, who took the first two games against the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-2 and 5-4 respectively, who had just swept them a few weeks ago.

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A poor, seven-run performance from Jacob DeGrom on Wednesday, followed by a seven-inning gem from Milwaukee’s Chase Anderson, helped the Brewers split the series while keeping the Mets from gaining valuable ground in the N.L. East.

Matt Harvey failed to pitch past the fifth inning on Friday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Bucs took advantage of a tired Met bullpen to answer a five-run fifth inning to take the lead and win, 12-7.

A win on Saturday gave the Mets a chance to win the rubber game of the series on Sunday, but the Pirates came out swinging from the start, grabbing and early 6-0 lead and taking on five more runs in an 11-1 shelling of Tyler Pill.

New York was outscored 25-13 in their weekend series against Pittsburgh, and 38-23 over the course of the homestand.

That combination of a lack of offense and decent pitching is a surefire way to lose games, but their play on the field wasn’t the only bad part of the week for the Mets.

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In the latest instance of an embarrassing moment for a club that has seen so many over the years, the team’s mascot, Mr. Met, was recorded on video making an obscene gesture to a few fans who were apparently heckling him at the time.

The video went viral the next day, and whoever dressed up as the beloved mascot was fired from that position, but allowed to keep a second position with the organization.

It truly was a week where not much went right for the New York Mets, both on and off the field, and the team now finds themselves 11 games back of the first place Nationals and in a tie for third in the division with the Miami Marlins.

The Amazin’s are anything but that after a bleak homestand that put them near the bottom of the N.L. East, and as the midway point of the season looms not so far off in the distance, their failure to take advantage of a few beatable teams this past week could be the difference between a third consecutive postseason appearance or a long offseason.

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