SI:AM | Mets’ Long Losing Streak Is Their Worst in Decades

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland, taking the reins back from Tyler Lauletta while he performs a series of spells to hasten Joel Embiid’s recovery from an appendectomy.

In today’s SI:AM:
🏈 Breer’s take on Giants-Bengals trade
⚽ Neck-and-neck Premier League race
⛳ Exciting PGA Tour finish

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Classic Mets

It’s the fourth week of April, and the Mets’ season is already in danger of being over.

New York lost a heartbreaker to the Cubs in Chicago on Sunday and has now dropped 11 straight games. It’s the team’s worst stretch in more than two decades, and the sort of skid that only a handful of teams in baseball’s long history have successfully pulled out of.

Sunday’s game looked like many others during the streak: The offense couldn’t get anything going and the bullpen eventually squandered any hope of a win. MJ Melendez’s solo homer leading off the fifth provided New York’s only run of the day, and the pitching staff held the Cubs in check until closer Devin Williams gave up a game-tying RBI double to Michael Conforto in the bottom of the ninth. The final blow came when veteran Craig Kimbrel threw a wild pitch in the 10th that allowed automatic runner Pete Crow-Armstrong to advance from second to third. Nico Hoerner then hit a sacrifice fly to drive in the winning run.

“In big situations, we haven’t come through. Sometimes baseball is on your side, and sometimes baseball is not on your side,” Francisco Lindor said after the game. “We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to bring it.”

The Mets’ losing streak is tied for the seventh longest in franchise history and is the team’s longest since 2004 (also 11 games). The franchise record for consecutive losses is 17, set by the 1962 expansion team that lost 120 games.

Historically, a losing streak as long as the Mets’ has been nearly impossible to overcome. Only three teams in MLB history have ever lost 11 games in a row and still gone on to make the postseason: the 1951 Giants, the ’82 Braves and the 2017 Dodgers. (The Giants, like the Mets, had their skid in April, while the Braves’ and Dodgers’ streaks came in the final two months of the season.)

Now, surely you’re thinking, “But it’s easier to make the playoffs today than ever before!” That’s true. If six teams in each league made the playoffs in 1951, the Giants wouldn’t have needed Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” to overcome their early-season losing streak. But there haven’t been many teams that have lost as many games in a row as the Mets have and still managed to get anywhere close to playoff contention. Only 12 teams in MLB history have had a losing streak of at least 11 games and finished the season with a winning record. The track record would be even worse if the Mets don’t win their next game. Only two teams in the past 95 years have lost 12 games in a row and finished better than .500.

The good news for the Mets is that they might not have to finish that far over .500 to make the playoffs. They nearly made it last year with a record of 83–79, losing the National League’s final spot to the Reds on a tiebreaker. But they’ve got their work cut out for them to make it competitive. New York’s record now sits at 7–15, tied with the Royals for the worst in the majors. The Mets are eight games behind the Braves for first place in the NL East and six games out of the final wild-card spot (for whatever that counts for on April 20).

The Mets entered the season with reasonably high expectations—not World Series favorites by any means, but expected to be competitive in a strong NL East. They significantly overhauled the roster in the offseason, trading away mainstays Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil. Fellow longtime Mets Pete Alonso, Edwin Díaz and Starling Marte left via free agency. The Mets made a couple of big moves to try to replace them, signing Bo Bichette as a free agent and trading for White Sox outfielder Luis Robert Jr. and Brewers pitcher Freddy Peralta.

It’s a good group on paper, but the results haven’t been there. The Mets rank second-to-last in the majors with 3.27 runs scored per game. Only the Royals (3.23) have been worse. They’re also second worst in team OPS at .624, one point better than the Reds. Part of the problem is that Juan Soto has been on the injured list with a calf strain since April 3, although the Mets’ offense has been so terrible that the issues clearly run deeper than just one player’s absence. Soto is expected to return to the field at some point during the Mets’ homestand that begins Tuesday and runs through April 30.

The Mets are fortunate that they have a lot of time to turn things around. Digging out of an eight-game hole is a lot easier when it starts in April than in September. The track record of teams salvaging their seasons after a losing streak like the one the Mets are on isn’t long, but all hope is not lost. Fangraphs still gives New York a 41.3% chance of making the playoffs. Mets fans are famously rational and analytical, so I’m sure that will put them at ease.

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The top five…

… things I saw yesterday:
5. Juraj Slafkovský’s overtime game-winner for the Canadiens, his third goal of the game.
4. TJ Friedl’s bases-clearing three-run double for the Reds in the ninth inning to take the lead against the Twins. Minnesota tied it up in the bottom of the ninth, but Cincinnati won in extra innings.
3. A really tough finish by Desmond Bane in the Magic’s Game 1 win over the Pistons. Orlando beat the East’s top seed, 112–101, for its first road playoff win since 2019.
2. An outrageous coast-to-coast play by Victor Wembanyama. Wemby is the first player in NBA history to have at least 35 points and five three-pointers in his playoff debut.
1. The Sabres’ two goals in less than a minute to complete a third-period comeback against the Bruins and earn their first playoff win in 15 years.

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