NEW YORK — When Francisco Lindor led off the bottom of the seventh inning, reality reduced Citi Field’s a cappella rendition of “My Girl” to a faint murmur.
It sounded fitting considering all the fun we’ve had over the past few months, in addition to what’s at stake now and how things have been looking.
Time for the New York Mets season is almost up.
The Mets are eliminated after another lackluster performance in the National League Championship Series. They lost 10-2 to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday night in a game in which they looked thoroughly overmatched. Again. They trail the Dodgers 3-1 in the series.
Worse than these numbers, as teams have made comebacks facing such deficits, it appears the Mets are running out of gas.
“Sean (Manaea) said it the other day,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said when asked if his rotation had hit a proverbial wall.
Here’s what Manaea said Monday after his start when asked about his final inning: “I just hit a wall. I mean, I don’t know, I just hit a wall. Obviously I try not to do that. I really have no other excuse than that.”
So Mendoza continued…
“We ask a lot of these guys,” he said. “And we’re up against a good team. You’ve got to give those guys credit. That’s a deep lineup. That’s a good setup. And whether those guys feel it or not, we didn’t execute them and we didn’t get any height from them.
The problem can be noted elsewhere, as there is no single reason why the Mets were outscored 30-9 in the NLCS, but the rotation is a good place to start.
New York leaned heavily on strong starting pitching during the final months of the regular season, but that came with a flyout. The more the Mets’ veteran rotation produced quality outings after being injured a year ago and with a shorter workload, the more fear grew that taxes would have to be paid. Unfortunately, that expiration date appeared in mid-October for the Mets.
Jose Quintana is a year older and 100 innings deeper than he will be in 2023. (Photo: Luke Hales/Getty Images)
The Mets’ path to postseason glory included camouflaging their shallow bullpen by relying on their starters to pitch deeper into games than most other teams’ pitchers would in October. It hasn’t worked against the Dodgers, a star-studded lineup and an overall instrument of plate discipline.
Game 4 starter Jose Quintana, 35 years old and more than 100 innings more than his total from when he was a year younger, never had much of a chance. The Dodgers nullified his style of working around the edges, leading to four walks, five hits and five runs in just 3 1/3 innings. By the time the scorebook closed on Quintana, the Mets were trailing 5-2.
Earlier this week, Mendoza said rest days were an important part of the calculation when ordering his rotation for the NLCS — even though his starters were getting extra rest.
“I think it comes down to where they are physically,” Mendoza said. “Those three guys (Quintana, Manaea and Luis Severino) are now in an area they haven’t been before.”
Through four games, no Mets starter has recorded an out in the sixth inning. Meanwhile, on the Dodgers side, only Game 1 starter Jack Flaherty accomplished the feat, pitching seven innings. But that’s part of the difference between the Mets and the Dodgers. Los Angeles can win in other ways, including by leaning on several leverage arms looming in the bullpen.
When Quintana’s outing came to an end, the Mets turned to reliever José Buttó. Once a late-innings mainstay, shaky performances have relegated Buttó to lower-stress situations in the play-offs. Buttó allowed two inherited runners to score. It is his first season as a regular player in the Major League selection. Moreover, he started the season as a starter. Out of gas?
For Game 5, the Mets will start lefty David Peterson. If The Athletics previously reported, he always loomed as an option over Kodai Senga as long as the Mets didn’t end up using him first out of the bullpen.
Peterson stands out as the best option for the Mets, but he hasn’t started a game since September 29 and has pitched as a multi-inning reliever since then, topping out in three innings on October 5.
“We’ve been through a lot this year,” Peterson said, “and it’s made us who we are today.”
The Mets are hoping to keep an improbable season alive, including Grimace and OMG. (Photo: Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)
Lindor added, “If you don’t believe, you shouldn’t be here. You have to believe. You have to fight for what you want. You have to fight for it.”
From a New York perspective, the season is not over yet. The Mets talked about adding a new chapter to a wild plot with pages of OMG and Grimace. On Friday, The Temptations will perform “My Girl” after singing the national anthem. Yep, that’s another real line about the Mets of 2024. They’re hoping to write a few more improbable ones.
Inside the clubhouse, there was a common theme with players pulling from the past. The Mets had reached their final out in Milwaukee, several players pointed out. However, that was in the Wild Card Series. It didn’t mean we had to win three times in a row. It’s only been a few weeks, but it feels like much longer. A lot has happened since then.
And it’s not just the Mets’ rotation that is seemingly running out of gas in this series. Position players like Jose Iglesias and Francisco Alvarez haven’t done much either. Brandon Nimmo is dealing with plantar fasciitis, and to his credit, he continues to work hard on every ball.
The Mets have overcome many challenges. Players walked the line of inspiring hope while recognizing the weight of this particular task. The Mets shouldn’t be completely discounted, but their long-held concerns about the way they navigated previous tests may finally be catching up with them.
(Top photo of Mets in the dugout: Frank Franklin II / Associated Press)