Just when the Mets are finding out the most unique ways to hand over a win to the rivals, that too in the most critical Wild Card moments, it’s their trade deadline moves that should be questioned. Remember when the Mets went for the Orioles’ outfielding option, Cedric Mullins, over Harrison Bader at the trade deadline? Since then, Mullins is hitting .191 for the Mets. And Bader? For the Phillies, he’s hitting .331! And if that’s not enough, Mullins is blowing up in the defense as well.
“It’s a tough one there, but once you realize that you have no chance on that play, maybe you give yourself a better chance to play it off the wall“. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza called out Mullins after a failed attempt to rob a home run that gifted a win to the Nationals. And if you check the clip, you will also agree with Mendoza here. But Mullins himself seems not to agree with his manager.
“First thought was make a play on the ball,” Mullins said. “More or less an instinctive type of play. Just do what you can. I knew what I was trying to do there, just didn’t execute.”
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Well, the game was knotted at 3 in the 11th when Mets reliever Tyler Rogers faced Daylen Lile. Lile launched a deep fly to left-center that Mullins nearly tracked down. But it sailed over his head and kicked toward right field. It was a miscalculated move by Mullins as he went to rob the homer, but instead couldn’t get to the wall.
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The result? A two-run inside-the-park homer. While Statcast even noted the wind knocked it down by about 10 feet, keeping it from clearing the fence, Lile deserves all the credit for making it possible by racing around the bases in just 14.86 seconds! Eventually, the Nationals took the lead, which remained till the end of the game.
And check how it couldn’t be the worst time than this for the Mets to hand over the loss to the Nationals.
The Mets’ playoff scene is getting complicated
The Mets lost a playoff berth in the last two years, and this year, they’re hanging in the middle. Well, if the Mets are serious about making it back to the postseason, they’ve got to take care of business against teams like the Nationals, who sit near the bottom of the league in winning percentage. Instead, Saturday night at Citi Field turned into a rough one for New York.
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The result? The Mets are currently clinging to third in the NL Wild Card race, with the Reds just a game behind in fourth. This was a chance to create some breathing room, but instead, they let it slip away against Washington. Hence, hereon, with series against the Cubs and Marlins coming up, the Mets can’t afford any more stumbles.
Having already been eliminated from the division race by the Phillies, dropping the Wild Card spot, too, would be a brutal look, especially for the league’s most expensive roster. “As bad as it looks right now, as bad as it’s been, we’re still in control. But we got to play better, that’s the bottom line,” Mendoza sounded confident a day ago about the Mets’ playoff chances.
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On paper, yes, they are still in the race, but it’s their unique way of blowing up things that is making the scene more complicated.