New York Mets: Forget all else, the Mets just are not a clutch team

Failing when it counts most

This lack of clutch play is reflective of the whole team because, let’s not forget, baseball is not just one person, but a team sport. To explain this more, let’s start with the type of winning that most people associate with clutch teams, a walk-off.

This season, so far, the Mets are 3-5 on walk-offs. They have three walk-off wins, but more importantly five losses. Their walk-off wins came from three different players, in three completely different situations. It makes those wins seem like flukes and not any kind of trend.

The Mets have lost more on walk-offs and most recently to the Phillies, also to Arizona, Washington, Milwaukie and most famously to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Losing to all of those good teams makes the losses sting. Those could have been wins that changed the New York Mets season and kept them afloat. Instead, we can look back at those games as good teams finding ways to beat a bad team.

In extra innings, where a walk-off win is more likely, the Mets also have a losing record on the season at 3-5. They can’t win games that go beyond the distance either.

Also, there are other situations in which the Mets are not clutch, they play with fire (not the internal kind) way too much and don’t execute way too often. As of June 26, they are 13-14 in one-run games. So, when the game is close, they lose more often than win. While it is somewhat admirable they have held on to win 13 times, those are the types of games they need to be winning more often. It’s what playoff teams do.