5 Mets Losses That Have Been the Most Crushing So Far in 2026

Things are going poorly for the Mets so far this season as they enter their first series with the Atlanta Braves in dead last in the National League East. The Mets have largely earned their 30-38 record due to a combo platter of injuries, poor performance, and a lack of accountability for said poor performance, but there are also games that they would love to have back.

Every season has games you can look back on and point to as reasons why a team either accomplished its goals or fell short of expectations. The 2025 season had at least 25 of them, which was damning in a year the Mets missed the playoffs by exactly one game.

As of Friday morning, the Mets are 5.5 games back in the National League Wild Card race, making the fact that they've coughed up a few winnable games quite frustrating. If you flipped five of their losses into wins, they'd be sitting at 35-33 and only a half-game out of the third Wild Card spot in mid-June, giving them a far different outlook than they have now.

Which games have been the most costly for the Mets? Let's take a look back at the five games the Mets would most like to have back as we hit mid-June.

1. March 29 - Pirates 4, Mets 3 (10 Innings)

This is the third game of the season, and the first loss the Mets suffered, but a lot of the things that happened here were emblematic of what was to come with them. The Mets wasted a good start from Nolan McLean, who gave up two runs in five innings, due to a lack of offense as they entered extra innings tied at two.

With a significant stretch of games upcoming without an off day, Carlos Mendoza opted to play the long game after his second straight extra-inning game. Instead of pushing his top relievers back-to-back days, Mendoza asked Richard Lovelady to navigate the ghost runner at the top of the tenth, which led Pittsburgh to score a pair of runs to grab a 4-2 lead.

The Mets had an opportunity to get back into it at the bottom of the frame when Francisco Lindor walked before a Juan Soto RBI double, but the Mets were too aggressive and got Lindor thrown out at the plate. The next two batters couldn't plate Soto, leading to a preventable loss that set the tone for what was to come over the next two and a half months.

2. April 19 - Cubs 2, Mets 1 (10 Innings)

This is another extra-inning affair, and it was more painful because it came towards the tail end of their 12-game losing streak. With Tobias Myers starting ahead of David Peterson as a bulk guy, the Mets held the Cubs' offense off the scoreboard for eight innings, but the offense generated only one run on an MJ Melendez homer in the fifth.

Devin Williams, seeing his first save opportunity in over a week and pitching for just the second time since April 7, gave up a leadoff single to Ian Happ before allowing former Met Michael Conforto to tie the game with a pinch-hit double. The Mets escaped the ninth with a tie, but the psychological damage for a team desperate to snap the then-10-game skid was massive.

Devin Williams pitches. — Devin Williams played a big role in the Mets' loss to the Cubs on April 19. | David Frerker-Imagn Images

After failing to plate the ghost runner at the top of the 10th, the Mets placed Craig Kimbrel into a nearly impossible situation to try to keep things tied. Kimbrel didn't help himself by allowing the ghost runner to advance to third on a wild pitch and giving up a game-ending sacrifice fly to the second batter he faced.

3. April 26 - Rockies 3, Mets 0

After winning a series against the Twins, it looked like the Mets were on track to right the ship, with the Colorado Rockies coming to town. The Rockies had lost 119 games a year ago and hadn't made a ton of significant improvements in the offseason, giving the Mets an opportunity to regain some of the ground they lost during their 12-game skid.

The Mets dropped the opener on Friday night and were rained out on Saturday, setting up a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon. While the Mets also lost the opener 3-1, we're focusing on Game 2 here, as the Rockies shut the Mets out 3-0 to complete a damning sweep of New York.

Kodai Senga had a rough start to the day, giving up three runs in 2.2 innings of what has been his last start to date after landing on the injured list with back issues following the game. The bigger issue was the non-existent Mets offense, which collected just six hits and plated one run over 18 innings of baseball against one of the worst pitching staffs in the league.

4. April 30 - Nationals 5, Mets 4

This game wasn't part of the 12-game skid but capped a miserable April that saw the Mets finish with a stretch of 17 losses in their final 20 games of the month. Facing a critical West Coast trip, the Mets had split the first two games of their series with the Nationals and looked to be on their way to a series win in the matinee finale.

A Melendez game-tying homer off of Miles Mikolas appeared to be a spark for the Mets, who then took the lead in the sixth on an RBI double from Mark Vientos. After Freddy Peralta got the Mets through six innings with a 4-3 lead, Mendoza turned to his bullpen to finish the job, with Brooks Raley doing his job with a scoreless seventh.

Luke Weaver came on for the eighth and delivered his worst performance of the season, giving up a crushing two-run homer to C.J. Abrams to allow the Nationals to go in front 5-4. The Mets had chances to tie the game, getting doubles from Soto and Francisco Alvarez in each of the next two innings, but couldn't advance either past second base to cap a series loss and a brutal 3-6 home stand.

Luke Weaver pitches. — The Mets were looking good until Luke Weaver blew it vs. the Nationals on April 30. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

5. May 22 - Marlins 2, Mets 1

The most sustained momentum the Mets had this season appeared to come in mid-May, when they went 5-1 on a homestand against the Tigers and Yankees before splitting a four-game set in Washington. Next up on that trip was a three-game series in Miami, the site where the 2025 season ended in disaster, allowing an opportunity for karmic healing with a good showing against the Marlins.

The Mets got a solo home run from Solo at the top of the first inning of Friday's opener, but that would prove to be the only run they would score until the ninth inning ... on Saturday. Miami plated two runs, one each off of Myers and Sean Manaea, to help the Marlins to a 2-1 win that would set up a series sweep in which the Mets recorded only two total runs in three games.

This loss may not have seemed as big of a deal at the time, but it triggered a five-game losing streak, undoing nearly all of the positive work the Mets did earlier in the month. The Mets entered that game six under .500 and dipped back to 11 under after the losing streak, digging themselves yet another hole they had to climb out of.

There is still a lot of time left in the season, but these five games are ones that could have made the Mets' outlook quite different if they had cashed them in. As a result, the Mets have very little room for error down the stretch if they hope to avoid selling in July and make a push for the postseason.

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