QUEENS, NY — The Mets’ offense had been invisible during a four-game losing streak heading into Wednesday night’s middle game with the Oakland Athletics, but it had found itself immediately behind the eight ball more often than not with a struggling stable of starting pitchers.
During the four-game slide, Mets starters have allowed 19 runs in 18.2 innings of work for a swollen 9.15 ERA.
Paul Blackburn, who had allowed just two runs in his first 12 innings as a member of the Mets after being acquired from the Athletics, was ripped apart by his former team on Tuesday night, allowing seven runs (six earned) on six hits in four innings of work. Three of those runs came in the first inning after allowing a bases-clearing three-run double to Seth Brown. The Mets went on to lose 9-4 in their first game back from a grueling west-coast road trip that ended miserably with a sweep at the hands of the Seattle Mariners.
“I was just going through it. I wasn’t able to make a pitch when I needed to make a pitch. Going out there and giving up a three-spot is not setting us up for any type of success or momentum for the offense. It was a tough road trip we were on, I was hoping to come in here and go out there and get through the first quickly… but that didn’t work out.”
Out in Seattle, Jose Quintana imploded in the seventh inning, allowing three runs to put the Mariners out of sight in the series opener on Friday — a 6-0 loss. After giving up eight runs against the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 4, he gave up five in Seattle.
Luis Severino’s bounceback season has hit a snare after he gave up four runs on six hits in five innings against the Mariners in a 12-1 loss on Sunday. Over his last three starts, he has allowed 14 earned runs in 13 innings pitched (9.69 ERA).
Even Sean Manea, who was coming off a two-start stretch in which he allowed zero runs in 14 innings pitched with 21 strikeouts, lasted just three innings against the Mariners where he yielded three runs on four hits in a 4-0 loss on Saturday.
Asked whether or not he was worried about the state of his starting rotation, which lost Kodai Senga and Christian Scott right before the trade deadline in late July — thus sparking the acquisition of Blackburn — Mendoza said, “Not really.”
“It’s one of those where they’re going through it right now,” Mendoza said. “Our starters are not getting length and then we’re getting behind early in games as well. We’re having a hard time getting back. It’s just one of those where it’s one time through… It’s a part of 162 because they’ve been so good for us.
“For quite a bit, the starters have given us a chance every time they go out there and they take the baseball. Now there was Sevy, Sean, Quintana pitched a really good game until the seventh in Seattle, and then there was Blackburn.”
The Mets do not have many other options post-trade-deadline to bolster their rotation. Senga is done for the season with a high-grade calf strain and Scott just began throwing off of flat ground on Sunday after suffering a UCL sprain. That certainly does not bode well for their playoff chances — the Mets chasing the third and final NL Wild Card spot — if this trend of poor starts continues.
