NEW YORK — “You never know what you’re going to do,” Brandon Nimmo said late Friday night, “until you get hit in the face.”
For Nimmo, that was literal on Friday, the New York Mets’ outfielder having taken a ball off the C-flap of his helmet in the third inning. But he might as well have been talking metaphorically about his team, which took another one on the chin Friday in an 8-7 loss to the San Francisco Giants.
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The Mets wanted so badly for Friday to be a fresh start as they were home following a 2-6 road trip. Instead, it became another low.
Patrick Bailey’s two-out grand slam capped a five-run eighth inning off Reed Garrett that erased a four-run Mets advantage to the frame. And with an opportunity to tie the game or win it outright in the bottom of the ninth, the Mets made the last two outs with the bases loaded.
SF 8
NYM 7
FinalThe Mets blew a four-run lead and stranded the bases loaded in the ninth. They're a season-worst eight under .500 at 21-29.
— Tim Britton (@TimBritton) May 25, 2024
New York has lost the opening game in nine of its past 10 series. It has dropped 11 of 14 overall and fallen a season-worst eight games below .500. The Mets haven’t started this poorly through 50 games since 2013. Their deficit in the NL East is the largest it’s been in May since the division included the Cubs, Cardinals and Pirates, back in 1993.
“It’s tough right now, especially after losing another one the way we just did,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’re angry.”
Previously the Mets’ unexpectedly stalwart late-game option in the pen, Garrett has yielded seven runs and 14 base runners in his past six innings.
“I let it snowball out of control,” he said. “I didn’t do my job and let the team down.”
Mendoza is hunting for answers in a bullpen that’s come unmoored in May. Edwin Díaz lost the closer’s role over the weekend, Brooks Raley is done for the season, and Garrett and Adam Ottavino have been far from the lights-out set-up men they were in April. Overall, New York’s bullpen ERA has jumped from 2.85 in April to 4.58 in May.
Garrett and Ottavino combined to allow three earned runs and 21 base runners in 26 1/3 April innings; they’ve allowed 13 earned runs and 37 base runners in 19 2/3 innings this month.
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“You’re always piecing it together,” Mendoza said. “Right now we’re having a hard time finishing innings. I’m pretty confident the guys down there will get it done.”
In that vein, Díaz did look better Friday, tossing a scoreless seventh in his first appearance since last Saturday’s blowup in Miami.
“I was able to command my glove-side fastball and my slider down and away,” Díaz said. “Whatever I did today, I have to keep doing every day.”
Mendoza said after the game he was open to Díaz returning to the closer role as soon as his next appearance.
Garrett lamented that the Mets had “played too good” for him to let it get away from the club in the eighth. Indeed, the first seven innings had served as a blueprint for what could be in Queens. For once, the Mets were aligning a strong offensive performance with a good one from the mound. They’d hit three home runs for the third straight game (J.D. Martinez, Mark Vientos and Pete Alonso), providing insurance after taking the lead in the middle innings. Christian Scott was positioned for the first win of his major-league career, having limited San Francisco to two runs on two hits in six innings, retiring the final dozen Giants he faced.
Instead, the Mets became the fifth team in major-league history with three homers or more in each of three straight losses. (The 2022 Diamondbacks were the most recent to achieve that feat.)
These Mets will need more than the kind of vibe shift implicit when the clouds clear and it’s 80 degrees on the first day of a holiday weekend and a 10-game homestand. Friday felt like it could be different. It ended up more of the same.
Nimmo’s response to getting hit in the face? To eventually gather himself, sprint to first base and promptly swipe second. The Mets’ rebuttal remains to be determined.
“We continue to show up, continue to work, continue to compete,” Mendoza said. “We’ll get through it.”
“You have no other option,” said Nimmo. “You need to turn it around.”
(Photo of Reed Garrett: Luke Hales / Getty Images)
Tim Britton is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the New York Mets. He has covered Major League Baseball since 2009 and the Mets since 2018. Prior to joining The Athletic, he spent seven seasons on the Red Sox beat for the Providence Journal. He has also contributed to Baseball Prospectus, NBC Sports Boston, MLB.com and Yahoo Sports. Follow Tim on Twitter @TimBritton
