The curious case of leaving men on-base continues to befuddle the New York Mets.
Now, it’s trending at historically bad levels.
An inability to take advantage of scoring the proverbial ducks on the pond has become the Achilles heel of a team whose offense is affluent in almost every other aspect.
As of Wednesday, the Mets rank third in Major League Baseball in team batting average, second in on-base percentage, second in hits, 11th in OPS, and sixth in total bases. Yet, they rank 19th in the majors in runs scored, averaging a flat 4.00 before Wednesday’s meeting with the Washington Nationals.
It all derives from an inability to come up with timely hits.
They were batting just .212 with runners in scoring position with 29 RBI, collecting just 26 hits in 113 at-bats through their first 12 games of the season.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the number of men they stranded on the basepaths to end the inning has been astronomical.
In their last four games alone prior to Wednesday night, the Mets stranded 41 runners and were 8-for-44 (.181) with runners in scoring position.
On the season, they led the league with 106 men stranded.
Should such a trend continue, they are going to set one of the more dubious records in MLB team batting history.
On average, the Mets are leaving an average of 8.83 runners on-base per game this season through their first 12 games.
The 1941 St. Louis Browns, who holds the MLB record with 1,334 left on base during a 154-game season, averaged 8.6 runners left on-base per game.
Needless to say, the Mets are going nowhere — especially during a 60-game sprint of a season — if this trend continues.
