Looking Ahead to Upcoming Homestand

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The Mets lose two out of three to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Their offense is as limpy as humanly possible. Uh, they score one run on four hits and commit three errors in losing the rubber game of this three game series to the Diamondbacks. And that follows a just outstanding one run, three hit performance from the night before. So, yes, it's a five and four road trip, but I think anyone with a half a brain knows that this was a disappointing road trip . Now, let me just get the the uh elephant in the room out of the way. I'm in a horrible place as a sports fan. Um so my Met talk , which was gonna be negative either way, is probably gonna be even more negative today because I sat through hell today. I just have to admit it. I watched my basketball team go and endure a horrific 60 loss season for what to go from three to six in the draft ? So that sucked. And then yes, most of you are very happy about the Knicks. That makes me that makes me sick too, by the way. I'm gonna sit there and watch my lottery go from three to six and basically daydream about Darius Akoff Jr. as the next superstar. And then I watch the Knicks just destroy the 76 ers in a non-competitive mess. And then you throw that together with obviously the med performance selfishly. And maybe I only represent like one or two percent of the population in New York sports , this was as bad of a Mother's Day sports day as one could have. And when the Nets lost the lottery, which luckily was before the Mets started this game against the Diamondbacks, I actually went for a drive. That's how I handled it. I uh my wife gave me a big hug because she knew how was how devastated I was, and I said, I need to go for a ride. That's how pissed off I was. And I don't even think pissed off is the right word because I'm actually not pissed off at anybody. I'm saddened because I get why they have the rules of tanks in the NBA and they're obviously gonna flatten those odds even more. I understand that the odds never said that the Nets were likely to pick one, two, or three, and six was actually their likeliest scenario. And so I understand why the league does it. I don't think the draft lottery is rigged. I'm not one of those people. And I also under stood as I sat there through a bad basketball season why they were better off losing games. So that if they drop, they couldn't drop worse than seven. Which luckily they didn't. They didn't go to seven. They went to six. So I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. With the Mets, because I'm done talking about that crap. With the Mets, I'm mad. And I don't know as a Mets fan, how you can't be. Because we've had different points in this season in which we've been angry at the offense, mad at David Stearns, mad at Carlos Mendoza, different kinds of losses over the first 40 games this season. If you haven't hit the point of realizing this team isn't any good, if you hadn't reached that point yet, I definitely think the last two games of this Diamondback series was the slap across the face that you need it . Because you wait and you wait and you wait for this offense to wake up. You hope and you hope and you hope that this offense is going to wake up. And what we are witnessing now over a sample size that is no longer it's early is one of the worst offenses in the history of the franchise, which is crazy to say. And what I like to do when I look at the history of the Mets is I take sixty through sixty-two through 68, and you almost throw it out. We consider that the expansion New York Mets. So if you look at this franchise since 1969 and beyond, in which you no longer had expansion as an excuse. This so far statistically , from an offensive standpoint, and they have a DH, which they didn't have for the majority of that time. This is some of the worst offensive baseball we've ever seen . Sunday was the cherry on top, but I want to start with Saturday because on a lot of levels, the game two loss against the Diamondbacks may have been in a lot of ways the worst loss of the season. And they've had a lot of bad ones. We're gonna have a jam-packed Rico during the offseason where we rank and talk about all the bad losses. But you are facing a guy in Merrill Kelly who came into that start, lost like a puppy dog . He had pitched to a 9.95 ERA . He had been bad. And while we know Merrill Kelly is a better pitcher than that, you've got a veteran pitcher who's struggling big time. And somehow this offense from top to bottom made Merrill Kelly look like Cy Young . Somehow, some way, an offense which didn't even do a lot on Friday, but it did enough in the 10th inning to score those two runs and win the game three to one and make the really good pitching of Nolan McLean and the bullpen hold up. They come out on Saturday with a chance to win the series, with a chance to, and really a game they should have won. You've got Clay Holmes on the mound, who's been one of the best pitchers in the baseball so far. You got Merrill Kelly, who, like I mentioned, is a damaged puppy dog. This was the game in which maybe the offense gets right. And here's what's scary , sad, disgusting, whatever word you want to use. Even when you're a bad offense, the broken clock is going to have a big offensive performance every once in a while. Every once in a while you,'re going to accidentally score seven runs. Like just by accident. You run into a guy who's struggling, you have a couple of bloops that fall in, or in the Mets case, some line drives that aren't, you know, caught. And accidentally you score seven runs . And this team isn't even capable of that . And on Saturday against Merrill Kelly, you've got Ju oto who has been awful in the leadoff spot. I'll raise my hand and own that. Now, I don't think him moving to the leadoff spot is the reason he's been awful. I don't even think it's that he's pressing. Because I don't think Juan Soto's pressing at all. I think Juan Soto is fine. I think he's just slumping. And he's picking the worst possible time to slump. You listen to Juan Soto after games, you hear him talk about this team. He doesn't seem worried at all. And I actually believe him. Maybe not because he isn't worried. Maybe it's just, yeah, it's baseball. Whatever. I'm making $50 million a year. We'll be fine. So I don't even think his slump is about him trying to do too much. I think he's just slumping because sometimes you slump. But I get there'll be a lot of people in this audience who say it's the leadoff spot. It's not something he's done a lot of. And that's what's causing this. I don't buy that at all. And I'm not saying that because I was a big proponent of leading him off. I just don't think where he's sitting in the order or him pressing. I don't think that's the reason right now that Juan Soto swinging out of his shoes and popping balls up on a routine basis. I just think we're witnessing a really good baseball player, a great baseball player who's just not hitting . But you go back to Saturday, and there's a few moments in this game, and that's the problem with uh a met offense that's so bad. There's only a couple of moments. Last year, they would have guys on base all the time, and so they'd have a lot of opportunities where they would come up small. And I would always think, well, they're leaving it out. They're leaving it out. They're leaving it out. They don't get a lot of opportunities. But when they do , they not only don't come through, there's usually like a mistake mixed in. So on Saturday's game , game two of this series, MJ Melendez back into the three-hole for God knows what reason, draws a two-out walk, and on the very first pitch, I don't know if it was the Lindor thing from earlier this year where he's fiddling with his batting gloves or his running gloves, or he's distracted, or he's just so freaking surprised that Merrill Kelly would actually throw over to first base. But he throws over to first base and he's out by a mile and a half. For some reason, the first base umpire Ryan Wills called him safe. Quickly, Torrey Lavello challenges it and it gets overturned. The Mets get base runners so rarely that getting picked off with your cleanup hitter up before a pitch is even thrown can't happen. Can't happen. That's like the new phrasing here on the Rico Bronya. Can't happen. I think I say that a lot about a lot of aspects of this team. They score that run in the second inning on the RBI double by Brett Beatty, and that was kind of cool because the Mets rally came out of absolute nowhere. Two outs and nobody on. Marcus Simeon gets a hit. Beatty hits the RBI double. They don't take advantage of the two-out rally by turning it into a crooked number, but nevertheless, when the Mets score a run , I like to point up to the sky and say thank you . On Sunday I pointed to the sky and told everybody in the basketball god community to go F themselves. But sometimes you point to the sky and look at the baseball gods and say, hey, thank you. We got a run. Let's have a frickin' party because the Mets score a run. But I had a sinking feeling when they scored that run. We all had that same sinking feeling, which is is that all they're gonna score? Is that the one run per game that they're gonna actually put out there? And as good as Clay Holmes has been, and at times the Met bullpen has been, keyword at times . It is unrealistic to expect that one run is going to be enough . And so I feel bad. I feel bad, especially because of how good Clay Holmes has been to go through the third inning of Saturday with a fine-tooth comb and talk about all the little things that went wrong that led to the two-run single by Vargas that gave the Diamondbacks a two-to-one lead. And the reason I feel bad is because a normal, functioning baseball team should not let a two-out rally in the third inning that nets two runs, the only two runs they would score in this game. A functioning baseball team does not allow that to be the game. But that's the state of the Met offense. And unfortunately, as you're sitting there on this wonderful Saturday night, if you were consuming this game, because I have a feeling that most people now who tune into the Rico Bronya, whether it's on the podcast or the YouTube channel, I don't think you're even watching the games anymore. I think you've either given up and you're like, ah, I'll listen to the Rico for therapy, or you hate the mats and you're just drinking our tears. Well, one of the other. But for those of you loyalists, that's what I'll call you, the loyalists, the gluttons for punishment that are actually spending time on a Saturday night watching this crap product . When the Diamondbacks scored those two runs all with two outs, you said to yourself, we're gonna lose this game two to one. Or we'll lose this game two to one uh or five to one because Arizona will tackle on, you know, three runs in the eighth inning. Something like that . But that's a shame. And I wonder, even though Clay Holmes won't admit this, Nolan McLean was asked about it the previous day, he won't admit it. And that is, do you pitch differently knowing that you've got a limp dick offense that does absolutely nothing? My apologies. LD offense. And everyone says the right answer, like, nah nah man. We're just trying to get guys out. Nah, nah, we're not thinking that way. But you know, in the back of your mind , one mistake is your game. It's funny with Clay Holmes. Clay Holmes and when they converted him into the rotation a year ago, one of the things I tried to sell Hoff on and some of the Met fans on and why it could work is that Clay Holmes would sometimes pitch to some unluckiness. Like there'd be a lot of soft contact. Just watching the Yankees a lot. I saw it firsthand. There'll be some bloops that fall in or a ground ball that finds a hole. And when you're a closer , bad luck, man, in one inning, that does you win. That turns into a blown save and a loss. And there felt like there were a handful of blown saves by Clay Holmes where it was just bad luck in one inning. When you're a starting pitcher, and I think we've seen this through Clay 's tenure here now for a year and a half. You could have bad luck in one inning. As long as you take care of the other five that you throw, and you don't have the bad luck, you have a good start . You have one bad inning where bad luck nets you two runs, but you end up going six innings, two runs. That's a damn good start. And so you could afford now of your clay homes, a guy who's pitched a contact before , to have a bad luck inning and not have it kill you. Because as a starting pitcher, you've got more margin for error. Well, even though Clay Holmes is allowed to pitch six, seven innings, in this case, it was five and two-thirds . The one mistake, the one bad luck inning with this offense, they can't overcome it. So from a personal standpoint, Clay Holmes can still have a pretty good start, a quality start, if you will . But in terms of wins and losses, he can't afford anything with this offense. So to go through that third inning, there's two outs and nobody on. And those are the worst. He didn't have any ahead of the count base hits, which the Mets have just done an incredible job of on this West Coast trip, incredible being bad, giving up so many base hits ahead 0-2, one and two. We were documenting it on episode six eighty seven and six eighty-six. We're up to six eighty-eight now, by the way. Athletic Brewing Company crafts award-winning non-alcoholic beers for those who want to be part of every round. With over 185 flavor awards, they're exceptional NA beers that fit your lifestyle and any social occasion. Summer's full of good times, and athletic fits right in. Go to athleticbrewing. com to have brews delivered to your door or find them at a bar, restaurant, or store near you. Near Beer. Athletic Brewing Company. Fit for all times. When the stakes rise and the lights get bright, that's when you find out who can really swim. Deep Waters is a new UFC podcast from CBS Sports. Every Monday, myself, Dean Thomas, alongside with legends of the sport, Chris Wideman, Jorge Masredal, and Dustin Poirier bring you inside the octagon like no one else can. Deep waters, new episodes every Monday. Watch on YouTube or listen on Apple, Spotify, and ever ywhere else you get podcasts . Some things are impossible to miss. Like an elephant in the room. This season's amazing offers brought to you by PayPal . Save an offer before you check out the K So it wasn't ahead of the count, but two outs and nobody on gives a up base hit to Corbin Carroll. Two outs and one on gives up a base hit to Perdomo. The killer was the walk to Adrian del Castillo, especially with a guy on deck hitting 355. And when he issued that walk, even though Clay has done such a great job of getting in and out of trouble, in fact, in the previous inning, he gave up a leadoff double to that same Adrian Del Castillo and got out of it. He worked his way through it, got a big strike out of Gurial , got Gabriel Moreno to hit one pretty far, but it was a fly out . And that has kind of been the calling card of Clay Holmes this season. He's done a great job of wiggling in and out of trouble. And unfortunately, Vargas found the hole. And he gets a two-run single, which felt like a killer. And credit to Clay Holmes because after he gives up that two-run single, he not only gets the last out of the inning, he proceeds to retire the next eight guys in a row before he gave up a base hit in the sixth inning, which ended his start . So it was another solid performance by Clay Holmes. That's what I'd call it. Solid. Love you to go six. He was very close to going six. Mendy pulled him when he gave up that two-out single to Nolan Arenado. His pitch count was at 103 . I get it. I get it. Would have been nice to complete this start. But Clay Holmes did what he has done every time he's taken the baseball this season for the New York Mets. He's given them a chance to win. It's a simple thing. It ain't overly complicated . And Clay Holmes has done it every time he's towed the rubber. He gives them a chance to win . But when you have an offense facing Merrill Kelly and his 9.95 ERA, and you manage one run over seven innings, you're not giving yourself a chance to win . The play of this game, though, and it sucks, it sucks that I gotta bring up a play in the fifth inning as the play of the game when it comes to the LD offense was the fifth inning rally they put together, which started with a two-out double by Tyrone Taylor. And remember when the Mets scored their one run in the second inning, that also came with two outs and nobody on . So you get a two-out double from Tyrone Taylor, which really came out of nowhere because Kelly had struck out the first two hitters of the inning pretty easily in Beatty and Alvarez. Let me cough real quick . He gives up the double to Tyrone Tower and here comes Juan Soto . Now I have the same feeling that I think we all had, which is I don't think, despite Soto's struggles, that they're going to give Juan Soto a chance to hit here. I was surprised that they attacked him for two pitches and by attack they, didn't , but at least they faced him for two pitches, fell behind 2-0, and then they put him on base, which is I think two things. A, it's respect for Soto, despite his slump. And B, it's Bobachette doesn't scare you . Bobachette doesn't. And look, I acknowledge that Bob ette has hit into some very bad luck because in the first inning of this game, he had a line drive to second base and can tell Marte made an incredible leap and catch. And it feels like Bo Bouchette has hit into a lot of bad luck this season. In fact, the Mets hit into a lot of bad luck in this game, which I'll explain in a few minutes. And I acknowledge that that occurs. That exists. I'm not going to deny the existence of the Mets hitting in a bad luck. But Bo Bouchette doesn't scare you. Bad luck, good luck, any luck. Bo Bachet doesn't scare anybody right now. And when he came up with two on and two out, and again, this is the horrible feeling that one has about the 2026 Mets and the state of this offense, it felt like the game was on the line. It did because in you think because you've seen that when you get a scoring opportunity, and the fifth inning isn't even late in the game, but in the middle of this game, you not only need to come through because hey, you want to come back and you want to erase that two one deficit, but in the back of your mind, you're like, we may not get another scoring opportunity . And Bobichette swings at the first pitch, hits a fly ball to left field, which off the bat for like a split second, for like a like a mino mino mino second. That's a new word I created. A minor second. I thought, wow, is that gone off the bat? No, it's not gone. It's not gone off the bat. You kidding me, Evan , you dummy. Like you think the nets are moving up in the lottery, you schmuck? Why would you think something like that? Come on . Flies out the left field . And during that half inning break, I'm pondering to myself, I say self . That's their only chance, isn't it? They're not going to get another chance against Merrill Kelly and whoever Torrey Lovello brings into this game. And by God , by God, the calling card of the 2026 Mets is the way they get mowed down so easily. And so easily they did. Sixth inning, Melendez, Vientos, and Benge, one, two, three. Seventh inning, Simeon, Beatty, and Alvarez, one, two, three. Eighth inning, now it's against Taylor Clark. So all right, they got the immortal Merrill Kelly in his nine ERA out of the game. Tyrone Taylor, One Soto Bobichette, 1-2-3 . And then in the ninth inning against Paul Sewald, they discarded former Met from years gone by Melendez, Vientos, and Benj 1, 2, 3 . How does that happen? Even an offense that sucks. And this offense sucks. I don't think anyone could dispute that. The data is the data. The facts are the facts. The results are the results. This is an LD offense. I shouldn't even call them that anymore because I used to refer to the LD as an offense that was good that you know just got limp . They're just not good. So I I don't know what the new reference should be. I'm sure I'll get a ton of emails on that one . But even by accident , you get a base runner , you're facing Merrill Kelly, Taylor Clark, and Paul Seawold. You can'tally accident get a base runner and put the tying run on first base. That can't happen . That was putrid . Now, as far as the bad luck is concerned, because I do want to acknowledge it, I don't want to pretend like they didn't hit into some like horrendous luck in this game. And they did. And I was looking at the baseball savant page, which does a great job. It tells you the exit velocity and then the expected batting average on those balls. And to show you how unlucky they were, Carson Benge in the second inning lined out the center field. It was the hardest hitball of the game period, 107 miles an hour with an expected batting average of six twenty . Brett Beatty came up in the seventh inning with one out and nobody on and hit a line out the center field. It was the fastest hit of the game , 106.8 miles per hour, an expect expected batting average of 600. Then there was a diamondback hit. Who cares? Now let's get to number three. MJ Melendez in the third inning lined out 106 miles an hour, expected batting average of 840 . That's crazy. Mark Vientos in the fourth inning grounded out to start that inning. That was the next fastest exit, Velo . 105.9 miles an hour. Carson Benji again in the fourth inning, lined out. 105 miles an hour. Then we finally have a hit. Marcus Simeon got a hit . So the top five hardest hit balls by the Mets on Saturday all turned into line outs, a ground out, and a flyout . And then the next one after that, and this one was the killer at 101 miles an hour was the Mark Vientos flyball in the ninth inning. That off the bat was another one that you thought was getting out. Mark Vientos had a lot of that on this trip. He hit a few that actually did go out, and he had a few big hits in this over the course of this road trip, including that game winner from the opener of the series, but how many times did he hit a baseball that got tracked down at the warning track or got whipped down by wind ? So I fully acknowledge, and I think everyone would, that there was a lot of bad luck mixed in to Saturday's loss, and some bad luck mixed in throughout this West Coast trip. But I'll tell you why. I'll give you the information . I'll bemoan it a little bit, but then I'll still rip this team to shreds. Because despite some bad luck, a little bit of bad luck, it happens, it's a part of baseball, there is still no excuse for the 40 game sample size that we have now seen from this team. There is no excuse for mostly making Merrill Kelly look good. Yeah, there's a few that should have been base hits, and maybe in instead of sevennings, one run, it's six innings, three runs. And it's a little bit better. And who knows? The pitching's good enough. Maybe they win the game. But this is still a guy that you should bomb out of the ballpark . And again, I think my bigger issue is not to defend or even get into the weeds on Saturday and what could have been with a little bit more luck. It's the fact that we now have a 40-game sample size to look at, and this is a dreadful offensive te am. 40 games is a big benchmark because even though it isn't to the moment or the day, you're at the quarter mark of this season. 2 5 % of this season is complete. This team is on pace to lose a hundred games. That's one story, but they're also on pace to have one of their worst offensive seasons of all time. And I think my dad texted me this the other day on the Saturday game. It's like Groundhog's Day . It's the same story every single game. Do they pitch well enough to win a lot of these games? Yeah, did they pitch well enough on Saturday to win that game? Absolutely . Five and two thirds innings, two runs from Clay Holmes was fine. Austin Warren comes in, gets four outs. Even Craig Kimbrell, somehow, who shouldn't have been in this game to begin with, gets through the eighth inning and a two-one nobody out jam . They gave up two runs against the Diamondbacks. They gave up eight runs in a three-game series. That's not bad. It really isn't. So the pitching, if you want to just extrapol ate that and just talk about the pitching, sure, there's a lot of bouquets to hand out . But this is not just a bad offense. This is a really bad offense. And no one's walking through that door to save it . As far as Sunday's game is concerned, I know you see the lineup and you get pissed off. You see Austin Slater, you get pissed off. You see Andy Ab anez, you get pissed off. I was glad that Carson Bench was starting. I think that Carlos Mendoza listened to us, listened to the Rico, but mostly used common sense to know that Carson Bench has now earned an opportunity to face left-handed pitch ing . And look how he did. I think he showed you he needs more opportunities. He went one for three. And even in the second time they got an out against him, Eduardo Rodriguez did, it was a line out. Again , bad luck . But off of a game in which you had the terrible luck that you had, and there was a little bit more on Sunday, you still get mowed down by Eduardo Rodriguez. You still watch Eduardo retire the first nine. So let me do the calculations . The final 13 hitters were retired in game two . And then the first nine hitters were retired in game three. So thirteen plus nine, twenty-two batters in a row. That is seven and a third innings of perfect baseball against the met offense pitched by the uh quartet of Merrill Kelly, Taylor Clark, Paul Seawald, and Eduardo Rodriguez . And how about this stat that Gary Cohen laid out on the broadcast? And a lot of Gary's stats are meaningless and whatever. This one says all you need to know about this Met offense. It was the 11th time this season that Met Batters had been retired, 10 in a row or more . It's happened 11 times. And I'm so glad Gary Cohen told us this stat because as this dreadful season goes on, and we continue to talk about it here on the Rico Bronya, I was probably gonna do my own freaking research to see how many times this has happened. So thank you, Gary Cohen. And now we could just add to it . So it'll be easy to figure out moving forward. But you come out in a very important game. Certain games matter more than others, and certainly right now, every game matters a lot for the Mets as they're trying to cut in to this deficit they've created, not just in the national league east, but under five hundred. This is the rubber game of this series. You got a chance to at least win a series in every series you've played on this trip. Six and three , as frustrating as those three losses would be, six and three would be good. It would continue the chopping wood analyzation I've given you, which is just keep cutting into the deficit. Slowly but surely . And this offense comes out and gets absolutely mowed down. I felt bad for Vientos again because leading off the fifth inning, he had a ball that again I thought was getting out or at least going to be a double and, Ryan Waldenschmidt, the rookie that the Diamondbacks called up right before this series, went out and made an incredible leaping catch . But before that, you get Austin Slater in his just in his moment, right? Juan Soto throws a walk, one on, one out, two-nothing ballgame. Here's Austin Slater with a chance to be a hero. And he bounces into a double play ahead of the count. So let me address the line up and Mendy's decision with this lineup, because I touched on it a little bit with I'm glad Bench played. I I get why Austin Slater plays. Like, I will give you that because MJ Melendez, it's slowing down for MJ. He doesn't hit lefties. He's not going to hit lefties, unlike Carson Bench, who has that potential. I will fully embrace that with the current state of this roster, their best option is for Austin Slater to play over MJ Melendez. I will absolutely give you that. With the all-new Audi Q3, the answer is always yes. Yes to adventure. Yes to escape. Yes to right now . The all-new Audi Q3. Made for the Yes Life . We're back in the Miller's Yard. Summer heat stress. Not with this true green lawn. Pick out a lawn like a golf course here in Rhode Island without wasting a weekend. And PJ to a golfer started showing up. Like this pro, shock this grass is thriving in peak summer. Has to dodge the bikes and the recycling bins. Oh, perfectly struck. True Green, the easiest way to get a golf course quality lawn. Don't wait. Tap the screen now to sign up at TrueGreen.com. Exclusion supply see TrueGreen. com for details . Higher ed is closer to home at CT State Community College with twelve campuses across Connecticut. Experience a true community feel and affordable pathways, including free tuition oportunities. Learn more at ctstate.edu . And I gotta commend Carlos Mendoza on something. Otherwise, he's had a god-awful season. But Carlos Mendoza after the game was asked about Andy Ab anez's garbage defense because it was bad . One of the errors he made in the fourth inning turned out to be a no biggie runner on first two outs. He makes the terrible throw, and David Peterson was able to work through it by getting Ryan Walden Schmidt out . But in the sixth inning it was a killer. And quite frankly took a game that was close and a game in which the Mets had just scored a run, again point to the sky, thank you, and he commits a leadoff error which eventually comes back to haunt them because the Diamondbacks scored three runs, blew the game open, and all the runs were unearned. And both of those plays by Abanez at third base needed to be played. Now, why do I commend Carlos Mendoza? Because after the game, when asked about these errors, this is what Carlos Mendoza said. Thank you. Now, since you were honest and said you've got to make those plays at this level, DFA him to Mars. Get him off my baseball team . He is not good anyway. He shouldn't have played this game. See, this is where the lefty righty thing I get pissy at. I'll give you Austin Slater. I'm not giving you sitting Brett Beatty. Because I'll tell you this about Brett Beatty. As much as we all don't trust him , and I don't, and as much as we may be done with him, he's made almost every play at third base . Since the Mets moved him back to third base, he's been good. He's been fine. And when you have an offense that's as bad as this, and Iban z is not exactly that much more of a plus than Beattie is offensively at this point, I gotta play my best defenders. So Andy Ab anez shouldn't be on this team. He shouldn't have started in this game. And he should be DFA'd into orbit . But those are my issues with the lineup. I mean, you could have DH'd Alvarez. I guess that was the other option to get Austin Slater not to be in the outfield because Soto was the DH and he could have played the field. Um, I assume he could have played the field. He's been playing the field. This was probably just an opportunity to DH him . But the Slater thing, I don't get nuts about. I get nuts about him batting third. Like that, that's my problem. And look, it there's not a lot of great options. I understand that. This is why the biggest culprit on a day-to-day basis is the guy who built the team. The guy who built the team, because the team isn't good . I I it sucks saying that in the middle of May because I'm I as much as anyone else want this season to turn and we could all laugh at ourselves how dumb we were like 2024, this is amazing. Oh my God, this is so much fun. It's not turning anywhere, though. It just isn't. It is not a good team. So when we get angry about lineup decisions and who's hitting where, I'll get angry with you, like I just did, but then you pause and say there are just no good options because the team isn't any good . Now, more on this Sunday game . Oh, God . I I I really hate sports. There are days in which I say to my wife, I look at her and say, I hate it. I wish, I wish I didn't care about this. I wish I didn't care about the dumbass basketball team. I wish I didn't hate the Knicks as much as I do. Sorry, Knicks fans. Congratulations. And I wish I didn't care about the Mets as much as I do because it's all painful. It's all sucking. It's all sucking. Anyhow, where was I? Oh yeah, the offense. Are we still berating the offense? Yeah, they put together that rally in the sixth inning, and that was cool to see. It was cool to see because it involved C?arson Benj, who's the one slight positive when it comes to the offense, getting a hit against the lefty, beginning that rally, Luis Terence, who's really hasn't hit this season, ripping that RBI double into the right field corner. And then we get to Ju . Because I I I expected that they were going to face Ju in the sixth inning. I I don't know why, but I thought they were going to be more aggressive in facing him than they were on the previous night, even though on the previous night it was the same score and it was one inning earlier in the same situation with a base open and Bobachette on deck. For whatever reason, I had this belief that they would be more aggressive in facing it. Maybe it's the lefty-lefty thing. That's probably what it was. And Soto got ahead of the count, got a 2-0 pitch to hit, and he just got underneath it. And then I irrationally got mad at Gary Cohen because Gary Cohen, you know, following suit with the rest of this Met team, had no idea how many outs there were and called it a productive sacrifice fly. It was not a productive sacrifice fly. There was already one out. Moving a guy to third base for the second out is not productive, but that's okay. I don't even blame Gary Cohen. I blame Carlos Mendoza. I blame Francisco Lindor. I blame every Met who has so far this season forgotten how many outs there were. How could anybody blame Gary Cohn forgetting how many outs there were? I wouldn't blame Gary Cohn forgetting what city he's in or what team he's watching at this point . But Juan Soto was a huge problem in this ser ies. A huge problem. They cannot have a series in which Juan Soto takes an 0-4. And they can't have a series where Ju oto actually comes up with guys on base and comes up small. Now, granted, he only had two at-bats with runners in scoring position over the course of game two and game three. But guess what? As an entire team, they only had five at-bats with runners in scoring position . So it's not as if the team had a lot of opportunities . But when Juan Soto comes up in the sixth inning with one out and a runner on second, and the momentum is starting to build . That needed to be a crooked run inning or a crooked number inning. It had to be. And he pops up. And after Bachet walks, I mean, Austin Slater's up against the left y and you just you shrug your shoulders and say, oh, hopefully he's going to make us feel like an idiot. And he bounces out the first base in which he looks confused and doesn't even run right away . And that was it. That was it for the offense. A one-out walk in the seventh, nothing. A one-out single in the eighth inning, nothing. And by the time he got to the ninth inning, you're hoping for some grand rally down by four runs, but it's not going to happen. One run on Sunday , one run on Saturday, four hits on Sunday, three hits on Saturday. That's all you need to know. Two runs , seven hits over the course of two games, and if you want to include game one, in which they got to three runs, but the two runs that they scored came in the tenth inning. So in the nine innings that they played. How many runs and hits did they have ? I mean, it's pathetic. They had two hits on one run scored going into the tenth inning on Friday . One run and three hits on Saturday , and one run and four hits on Sunday . And they weren't exactly facing Glavin, Smaltz, and Maddox. Not exactly . As far as the pitching is concerned, look, I think we saw the potential negative of the opener. I like using David Peterson as a bulk guy, and despite the fact that it did not work in this game, I still think for whatever reason we're getting better out of David Peterson this way. David Peterson threw well. He ends up coming in in the third inning down two-nothing because Huascar Brazzaban issued three walks to the six batters he faced. But the problematic one was in the second inning. And what was more problematic, maybe even than the walk, is that Il demar Varg as was caught stealing? He was. He took off too early. And Mark Vientos did not step up, go get the baseball, and make an accurate throw to Marcus Simeon, who was covering. And so it turned in to a Vargas stolen base. And so instead of one out of nobody on, there's a runner on second, nobody out . Arenado walks. James McCann lays down a bunt sacrifice, and unfortunately, Ryan Waldenschmidt came up big with a two-out, two-run single. But I go back to the stolen base . Keith Hernandez was very uh pointed when he said, This is what happens when you have guys playing out of position. In the case of Mark Vientos, I don't even know if it's out of position because when he came up a few years ago, he was viewed as a third baseman who also plays first base. So this is not a new position for Mark Vientos. He's just not very good at it . And when the Mets made the decision to move on from their former first baseman, who currently leads major league baseball in outs above average or whatever that stat is outs above outs above outs above I I don't know . I got a headache. And the Nets went from picking three to six. So I I forgot. Whatever the dumb, whatever the dumb status, whatever metric they use to try to accurately describe defensive first basemans, the guy in Baltimore has been the best in baseball. Which is crazy, but that's the case. Mark Vientos is below average at best . So it's to be expected. But I don't think to Keith's point, it's the out-of-position thing. It's the he's just not good at first base thing. But when you have a team that can't score runs, when you have a team that is so limited offensively, these mistakes will always come back and kill you. The Mets right now are built like a team that need to be perfect defensively and they can't make mistakes pitching-wise. And when they're perfect and they're flawless, if they can somehow scratch out two or three runs, they can win a baseball game. That is not a great formula for success . But you can't screw up defensively. And Mark Vientos in the second inning did. Is this still on Tobias Myers for falling behind Ryan Waldenschmidt and giving up a two-run double? Of course it is. Like I'm not yes. Is it on Tyrone Taylor for taking his first step back on that double instead of in? Yes. Because that slight hesitation was the difference between a diving catch, like he made a few innings later in the seventh inning of this game against Perdomo , and letting one fall in front of you. Well, that was a different play, actually. Now that I think about it. That was the that was the Walden Schmidt hit in the sixth inning. That was another backbreaker. Same thing. You get my point. Point still applies. Now, the hit to Walden Schmidt was a rip double over everybody's head. So that was a little bit different. But that's on Tobias Myers. And it is . But if they make the play defensively and they don't give an out away . It's a different inning . Now, I I I can't assume everything plays out the same way. You can't assume Arenado walks. You can't assume James McCann's laying down a bunt. I get all that. But the Mets are in no position to be giving outs away. And they did that in the second inning. And it continued. Because like I mentioned, Andy Abanez had as bad of a day at third base as you'll see. Two outs, runner on first, Bar roso hits a ground ball to third base, makes a shit throw . David Peterson obviously makes the mistake on a little bunt by Perdomo , but at least in those two cases, and this is where David Peterson deserves credit, he was able to fight through those mistakes and overcome it. David Peterson's pitching overcame the first error by Abanez. David Peterson's pitching overcame his error and wild pitch in the fifth inning. But in the sixth inning of a two-one game, right after the Met score run, right after they actually scored a freaking run on the RBI double by Luis Terence, a ground ball to third base off the bat of Argus. It's a routine play. And Andy Ab anez makes a terrible throw. And it looked like Peterson was going to get through the sixth inning because he got the next two guys out, gives up the base hit to Barrosa. And then that bloop. I described it earlier to Walden Schmidt. That was a little fly ball to center where Taylor hesitated slightly, couldn't make the play. Then Catel Marte rips a triple off the wall, and it's like, just just put us out of our misery. Just just put us out of our misery. And yet, I say put us out of our misery, but I'm watching this game like the schmuck I am hoping well, maybe this is the game where the offense wakes up and they they score five runs in the eighth inning or five runs in the ninth inning. But that did not happen. What I learned though, pitching wise, is that I would continue this David Peterson shtick, whatever you want to call it, using an opener. Brazzabana's been mostly good despite his struggles today. Uh I think for whatever reason it's how they get the most out of David Peterson. I mentioned last time that a part of it is strategizing on when you want to use that bullet. So starting the third inning with Corbin Carroll leading off the inning felt like, all right, that's a good spot for him. You get him against the lefty right out of the gate. You also can force platoon teams to have to make lefty righty decisions. And then between guys like Brazzaban and Myers and Warren, you can kind of wait to use David Peterson. You don't have to throw that bullet in the second or third inning. You could wait to the fourth or fifth inning. It's certainly on the table, depending on how the lineup is falling and also depending on how those guys are pitching . So I would continue the David Peterson bulke eye trend . But none of this matters if they can't freaking hit and God knows they can't hit. The good news is the Mets are returning home, and you can knock one out of the park and raise the apple with Takara Chuhai, a sparkling cocktail that blends real sho chu spirits with the delicious flavors of fruits locally grown in Japan, available at Citifield and Fuji Apple, of course, white peach and lemon. Let's pick our I'm the man right now, star of the series on our net negative, and then we'll get to your emails. We'll hear from the Hoff as well. Derico B at gmail.com . The net negative is Juan Soto . I I mean if you want to try to argue that you can. But Juan Soto in this three game series went 0 for 10 with two walks. Oh for 10. Let me repeat that. O for 10 . And he had two , I'd say significant at bats with guys on base. And he came up small. Now Bo Bachet did the identical O for 10. So you could argue, Bobachette, but to me, this is about Ju . This is about needing Juan Soto to be the player that we spent all that money on and be the player that they need to come through in big spots and it hasn't happened. I thought for a second off the bat he was gonna hit a leadoff home run in the first inning. It did not happen. But you could fight with me on it, Pete. I think the clear net negative for the first time this season. Yeah, he hasn't won it yet. Is Juan Soto. Agree, disagreeing? How do you feel? I feel like crap. Uh, this team sucks. Uh, yeah, I mean, that's fine. Juan Soto gets it. I mean, it's that not gonna the everyone could get it, but give it to Juan Soto. I mean, really, what what does it make a difference? Well, who else would you give it to? I mean, I think Bo Bachette's the other guy, but outside of Soto and Bachet, you know, who else you want to give that negative to uh uh uh andy abanez for for throwing a game i mean let's be serious. He was a cause of of three runs . Yes. Ryan. Yeah. Yes. That's pretty that's pretty bad. No, it's horrible. He should be DFA'd into orbit. I completely agree with you, but he only impacted one game. He had no impact on Saturday's game. Juan Soto directly impacted both of those losses by doing freaking nothing offensively. So honorable mention to Andy Ibanez. And we can honorable mention him all day. We can honorably mention uh a few guys in this offense. I mean, they barely got any hits in this series, but they need Juan Soto to perform at a high level. Uh, we talk about him carrying the team. This was far less than carrying the team. I mean, Juan Soto and Bob ette went a combined O for 20 and were only on base four times combined in this three game series. It's gonna be tough for any team to win when their top two hitters are doing that, but even more so for a team like the Mets . Yeah, and and the one thing I just want to go back to something you said earlier on about like you d you don't the the lineup is terrible but you know you could say a Banyez being in there and certain people being in there but you you kinda defended the fact that Slater's in the lineup because who else are you gonna put in there? Well, but that's the issue. Like I said that. That's why I get more pissed off at the guy who built the roster than that specific lineup decision in terms of who is on this roster. I thought that was their best option. Their only other one you could argue with me about is Alvarez should DH again and Terence behind the plate. I'll buy that. But in terms of who is currently here, I I didn't find that to be egregious. Starting But that's the but the issue is just the just the fact that these people are here. Like you're telling me, and here's here's my philosophy, and I could be very, very wrong. Austin Slater has never played a good season of baseball ever in his life. His max, I think he's hit 12 home runs in a season. You know, his OPS has never been over uh 7 74, except for one year. It was COVID year. It was 900 something the guy's never done and i know he's doing okay right now but the point is he shouldn't be here it's either get somebody like and i'm not saying he's doing good but andrew mccutram found a job in texas, right he? He latched on. At least you know the guy played high-level baseball for more than a decade. Like, see if he's got anything in the tank. Or you go to the young kids at this point in time. But to get a journeyman who's done nothing done it's not L D. There's no more limp dick. It's N D no dick offense. The uh Rico on the man right now, star of the series, I'll announce to you right now, cannot be an offensive player. I know Mark Vientos got the game-winning hit in the opener of this series. That RBI double Carson Benge actually showed again more growth as he I mean he only had two hits in this series. He was two for ten, but he did drive in a run in the opener. He actually got the base hit that started the rallying game three. But it cannot be anybody offensively. To me, it's Nolan McLean. You know, he actually went out. He delivered six strong innings after his worst start as a Met, or his worst start in the major leagues. And again, his six innings are highly pressed The one negative to McLean's start is that they gave him a lead and two pitches after getting the lead is when he gave up the home run to Nolan Arenado, the only run he gave up. But I think when you look up and down at bullpen options for the Rico, I'm the man right now, star of the series, obviously he's known offensively. I think it's uh a straightforward Nolan McLean victory. He would become the first two-time Rico. I'm the man right now, star of the series. So anyone else you want to in nominate besides Nolan McLean? Yes, I do. And I I apologize for my terrible video right now. I just I'm under construction at my house, so I have no good view. This is a and I really I'm in a dark place like the Mets. We all are. At least you're at least you're not a Nets fan, or at least you got the Knicks and the Yes. By the way, you know who's not a Net fan anymore ? My kid, Tony. Oh, you gave up on him? It's over. Yeah. One season in, one season out, he's over it. Really? What if Darius Akoff becomes a star? I mean, come on, he's giving up after one . Yeah,, Evan not happening, dude. I'm sorry. How's the lottery going for you? No, the lottery blows. I mean, I'm not saying that, I'm saying so he's he's just he's done. Yeah, I think he's over . I can't believe that Hope's kid was like such a net fan. He'd be like, oh, when are we gonna go to a game? So the lottery finished him off. It wasn't the 60 freaking losses this season. I I I think everything turned him off. Listen, I told him right now and I don't do this. I didn't make him a Mets fan. I let him make his choice. He's a Yankee fan, whatever. He's a Buffalo Bills fan, whatever. I told him, I go, dude, the Knicks are winning a championship this year. I think you got to get back on the bandwagon. Just just do it. But I before but listen, I digress. Getting back to the on the man right now stars series. It's a sarcastic one, but it could be a real one too. David Peterson , five innings out of the bullpen, no earn runs . Yeah, I think he's a an honorable mention. I don't think you give it to him over Nolan McLean, but I I think there were a lot of guys when, it comes to the pitching because, like we mentioned before, we can go on and on about the offense. They pitched well in this series. You know, overall, you go back to the opener, Nolan McClane goes with the six innings, then they got four scoreless out of their bullpen. Weaver, Rayleigh, Devin Williams, and Tobias Myers. Clay Holmes pitches into the sixth inning, only allows two runs. Austin Warren and Craig Kimbrell keep the game close, even though the Craig Kimbrell thing was I don't even know if we should waste time on this, but they shouldn't have gone to him in a one-run game. I thought there were better options. With that said, he survived. And then you look at this game, David Peterson and even Shaw Maniah gave you a sc oreless inning and had his velocity up. So I think from a pitching standpoint, there's a lot of guys that deserve, you know, at least honorable mentions. But it's open and shut. It's Nolan McLean. Six strong innings, only allows a run, bounce back, performance. And it took how many series have the Mets played now? I I've I actually am counting it. It's their 13th series of the season. And this is the first time we have a two-time w inner of the I'm the man right now star of the series. Real quick, it's been Luis Robert Jr., Tobias Myers, Mark Vientos, Ronnie Mauricio, Freddie Peralta, Nolan McClain, MJ Melendez, Bo Bichette, Carson Bench, Juan Soto. Oh, Mark Vientos won it twice. My bad. See? This is why you fact check. Devin Williams. Yay. Yay. Devin Williams, and now Nolan McClain. So I apologize, Mark Vientos. I don't know. I don't know how I missed that. Vientos won it twice. Congratulations. I can't even I can't even believe he won it twice. I don't even know how to do he's had a weird year, Vientos, because he continues to be the one bat outside of Soto and Bachet, you put them aside because of their resumes. He's the one guy who is shown like that. Is he about to break out of it? Is he about to get hot? Is he about to be a a guy who could carry the offense for a few weeks and he shows you those signs and then he goes over four with three strikeouts and then he has a game in which he gets in a horrible lock but two balls should be gone and they get caught at the warning track. Then he goes over forward two strikeouts. They have to play Mark Vientos every day, not because he's amazing, not because he's great, not because I believe in him, but because he clearly has one of the better upsides of anyone currently on this twenty six man roster. Yeah, and it's funny 'cause 'cause I really quickly I just I made a comment this weekend about, you know, um you made a point about who's leading defensiv ely uh with with the you know, and I don't want to say the guy's name anymore because we've already talked about him over and over and over. But I say I made a point about like the replacements pol, you know, whether it's Polanco, whether it's Simeon, Bach et, all they're basically offers. Combined, they have seven home runs and they have like 39 RBIs. It's just it's just not productive enough. And people told me, oh, I'm missing out on Mark Vientos. I I I just I you know obviously I I missed him on purpose. But Vientos and Beatty, they are not consistent enough to be included in this like rebuild of a team. I'm sorry. They're they're too inconsistent. They have two good games every fourteen days. That's it. It's not good enough. Let's read some of your emails to recob at gmail.com. I'll start with a positive one. Nick from Charlotte writes, I'm here to make a prediction. We're going to go on a run fueled by AJ Ewing, starting with our next homestand. I think today was the wake-up call that Stearns needed. I believe he will move Brett Beatty full-time back to third base while Ronnie Mauricio and Lindor are out and call up AJ Ewing while DFA ing the Abanez. When Ewing comes up, he'll give us the offensive spark we need, and he and Benj will become a solid two three in our lineup moving Bichette to the four spot. You heard it first here . I think that AJ Ewing, with all the potential that he has, and certainly is a highly regarded top one hundred prospect, I think that that's like the dream. That's like the new way as Met fans we could see this season turning by the infusion of youth and someone like Ewing having an impact on this team. But are they ready to pull the trigger and call him up? Because do they think he's ready? He got off to a great start of AAA . He cooled off a little bit, but still has been producing. Are they ready after a small amount of time to call him up? Because as much as I want to see him here, and I I want him here, so I agree with you, Nick, the decision needs to be made based on him being ready and not because of how desperate they are . Steve writes, the incompetence is comical. I am currently on delay in the bottom of the sixth inning, and this scrub Andy Abanez, not his fault. He shouldn't be on the damn field, just made his second error th atird base . Just when you think this organization can't be any more incompetent, they forced this guy into the lineup out of position. It's no coincidence this team is one and eight versus left-handed starters. Player minor leaguers. It's not like they can do any worse at the plate than no hits through five innings. Oh look, a bloop single just scored the guy who reached on an error. They better grill Mendy on this one in the postgame. And there's a two-run triple, plating the second and third unearned runs of the inning. And I know why, I know what you're going to say. It's on Soto and Bichette to carry this team. Sure, they need to be better, but stop batting Slater third, so maybe they don't walk Bachete on five pitches because he chased the first one. All right, the rant's over. The team sucks, but the manager and the man from Milwaukee suck more . It's on everybody, Steve. So while yes, they need a lot more than 0 for 10 from Bo Bachet and Juan Soto , you're a thousand percent right. It's on a lot of other players, including giving an easy pitch around spot when you bat Austin Slater third. Sean Rice, hi Evan. If the season were to end right now, here's a list of Mets who would have their worst OPS seasons . Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor, Bo Bachette, Brett Beatty, Francisco Alvarez, Marcus Simeon, Luis Robert Jr., Tyrone Taylor, Luis Torrenze, and Jorge Polanco . That is that's kind of crazy. Well, that's how you get to a team that may lose 100 games. You got everyone having even the guys who have good resumes, having just bad seasons . Or man writes, You should look at how many times Mendoza has chos not toen start a player because the pitcher is a lefty or a righty and show how that player has performed. I have a feeling it won't look good stat wise. I don't think there's any stats that would look good right now for this team. Gene from Smithtown writes: Evan Cohen needs to publicly announce that the Mets have until July 1st to get back to 500. Or if they fall 15 games under 500, Stearns will be fired. We need consequences. Come on. I know a GM or a president of baseball operations change midseason is extremely rare, but obviously it's more roster construction than is to blame, right? I just can't sit through an entire season that continues this way.ing Lo forokward to the Rico . Gary writes, three games, twelve hits. They suck and are going nowhere. End of message . Nick writes, there was a lot of pressure on this Sunday game internally. Last night Mendy was like, We're focused on tomorrow, closing out on a good road trip, winning another series, gaining momentum. Well, it turns out you just suck, actually . Thank you . Michael uh from Comac writes, hello. This is my first email to the Rico. You guys do amazing work. We appreciate that. I listen to Evan and Tiki with more ash every day without fail. Thank you very much. I just felt compelled to email in today to send my thoughts to Evan for watching this lifeless Mets team after the Nets got screwed and while the Knicks smoked the seventy sixers. You simply deserve better as a sports fan . Thank you, bro. I appreciate that. Appreciate all you do. Big fan is you've made me a bigger Met fan than I wish I was. Happy Mother's Day to you and your family. Thank you very much. I like the condolence messages. I just got one from Joe, from Joe Boningo . I'll read I'll I I think I could read this uh this text message he sent me. I'm gonna Joe B him, as some say . Bro, the sixth pick in the draft, what a disgrace. The league doesn't want the Nets to be good . I don't know if they don't want us to be good. Uh, the system is just the way it is, which is you need to get lucky. And it feels like the Nets never get lucky. It's crazy when they trade their pick away and someone else owns their picks, they get lu cky. When the Rockets owned their pick a few years ago, it went from nine to three. When the Celtics owned their pick, it went from one to just one. They picked number one. They won the lottery one year but when they have the pick it always goes backwards so I don't know if it's that they don't want us to win it just it sucks . Julian writes, Soto doesn't work in the one-hole. After he does, after he does down, it's smooth for the pitcher. Put him back second or third and lengthen the lineup. I don't know if like, okay, I'm gonna try to handle this and kind of explain my thoughts on this. If Juan Soto is Juan Soto, which he hasn't been really since coming back from the I L. He's had his moments, but he hasn't fully been Ju Soto . But if he's Juan Soto, then I think he works in a leadoff spot. But there's no denying that since the move has been made, he hasn't gotten on base. He hasn't produced. He hasn't been Ju . So it doesn't work . And let's end with a conspiracy theory. Why the hell not? Steve writes, I've got a CBA conspiracy theory. Evan loved the show, felt I needed to share my thoughts regarding the puzzling roster moves that have been enacted so far this season. The only reasonable explanation I can find for the reprehensible acquisitions and subsequent forcing into the lineup of Austin Slater and the I Abbananeyz, et cetera is, this. Proud of the season, all the big spending teams, Dodgers, Yankees, Toronto, Phillies, Mets, Cubs, got together and decided that drastic measures must be taken to avoid catastrophic capping on spending in the upcoming CBA. They drew straws and the Mets lost. Now they are obligated to lose as many cakes as possible so that when negotiations begin and the poor peddling owners with only single-digit billions of dollars are grumbling about the overspending the rich or high-spending teams ruining the great sport. They can point at the Mets and say, clearly money is not the problem here. Look at the Mets. They are second in payroll and one of the worst teams in the league. Can you think of a better reason for what is happening right now? Only half kidding, Steven . I have thought not about that being true, but I have thought about what does the Mets being the worst team money could buy part two , what does it do to CBA negotiations? Do players actually point at the Mets and say, see? See ? And then you combine that with the Tampa Bay Rays, who, at least as of right now, are first place in the American League East, and say, see? See ? Uh, I don't think it's gonna have as much of an impact as maybe you hope. And no, unfortunately, the Mets weren't picked to just suck this season. They just have uh a front office that did a terrible job. I mean, an all-time terrible job. And I say all-time because 40 games is a big sample size, folks. It is no longer early. It's no longer just 10 games, just 20 games, just 30 games. We know now about the twenty twenty-six New York Mets , and they're bad . And you start to wonder like, how bad will it go? Especially if they don't turn this thing around, they naturally will sell guys off before the trade deadline, as they should. Could this really be a 95, 100 loss team? I mean, right now that's their pace. Their pace is to lose 100 games. Could they actually lose 100 games ? And so I started doing some research. Right now for the YouTube audience, I am holding up a scorecard, a Mets Magazine from 1993. That was the team that lost 103 games. Let me see what this scorecard looks like. Marlins 4, Mets 2. Hmm . Vince Coleman, Joe Orsilak, Eddie Murray, Bobby Bonia, Howard Johnson, Tony Fernandez, Jeff Kent, Todd Hundley, and Pete Shurik pitched in that game for the Mets. And they lost to the Florida Marlins four to two. Now, this was early in the season, but it's perfect timing because the series was between May 7th and May 10th . And that's who the Mets were. And they were bad that year. And maybe we're on our way to being that bad again. So they have an off day on Monday, and then they open up a six-game homestand against the Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees back to being g10ames under 500 . I can sit here and tell you what they need to do. Like they gotta go win two out of three against Detroit. They gotta win two out of three against the Yankees. And yeah, if they did that and they w ent four and two on this six-game homestand and they cut it to eight games under 500, it would be tough to say that isn't successful . But what's so disappointing about what happened over the last two days is yeah, they've been winning series, and you're slowly chopping the wood into the deficit of being under 500, but now you're back to 10 . So winning two out of three is nice, but it's that slow , slow process back . Detroit is a beatable team. They have struggled this season. Obviously, the Tower School injury is a big blow. That should only affect you once every five days, but it's affected them more than that. I was looking at what I expect to see in this Tiger series. It looks like it'll be Jack Flarerty, a returning Fromber Valdez from his suspension. And uh Montero would probably pitch the finale. And looking at the Yankee series, it looks like it's going to be Clay Holmes against Cam Schlitter, which is a hell of a pitching match. Yep. The bulk David Peterson day against Carlos Rodan, and Freddie Peralta against Ryan Weathers. That's if everything holds up. So it's six games at home, and yeah, they're desperate . They're desperate. So we go back to what I was saying a few days ago. They just have to win series. And you look at every team they're fac ing besides the Yankees, because I think the Yankees are a legitimately good team, despite their struggles against good teams, which doesn't do us any good because we're not a good team. But again, this is a part of the schedule in which they're facing struggling teams. The Tigers are a struggling team. The Nationals and the Marlins, a seven-game road trip where they actually don't have to fly west of the Rocky Mountains, but these are divisional opponents that are under 500 . So over these 13 games , I mean, go eight and five. Is that asking too much? And what's crazy is you go eight and five. You're still seven games under 500. There's still a lot of work to be done. So it's just a tough time right now as a Met fan, but we'll be here every step of the way doing Rico 's. If you missed our anal yzation on the one win in this Arizona series, we did that on Friday night, Saturday morning. That's episode 687. You could find that in the archives of the Rico . One last stat I'll give you because I always say this off winning streaks: that when a team wins a lot of games in a row, what are you gonna do when the winning streak ends? Do you give it all back? Do you lose 10 out of 12? Or do you start a new winning streak or do you play 500 ball? I like to say just go play 500 ball. When you have a big winning streak, just go 10 and 10 over the next 20 games, then start another winning streak. And if you do that over a long season, you can win 90 plus games. When the Mets finally broke their 12-game losing streak, do you know what they've done since then ? They have played now 17 games since their twelfth straight loss, and their record is eight and nine . So they have been a slightly under five hundred team since they snapped the losing streak . That's not good enough. That's the problem. Like you have a losing streak like that. You got to start to gain some of it back . And right now the Mets haven't done that. So overall, it's a five and four road trip. Not good enough. And I think going into this road trip, when we analyzed, hey, what do you expect in these nine games? What's a goal for the nine games? I think we all looked at five and four and said, not that good. And even Carlos Mendoza, I give him a little bit of credit for this. He acknowledged it's not good enough. This team needs to get better. I think that most of us are still waiting on the call to the youth, whether it's Ryan Clifford or it's A.J. Ew ing or it's the more realistic Nick Moribido. But I think that's the next step in the desperation part of this season. But like I mentioned earlier, you want to balance calling up kids when they're ready, not when you're desperate. I think as fans we're desperate, at fans we want to see something that we can cheer and be excited about. This team doesn't do that. Tuesday night at City Field, I don't think you're going to hear crazy booze. I think you're going to hear a lot of apathy. Because that's unfortunately what this team is doing to a lot of Met fans. They're making us apathetic. Apathetic. Yes. Apathetic. I got that right. Well, for those of you that enjoyed the Knicks, congratul ations. For the Die Hard fans, I'm happy for you. For those that aren't Knicks fans and you're in my world of sucking, I don't know what to tell you. I wish I could tell you something positive. I wish I could make you feel better. The only thing I could tell you is think about other aspects of your life. Maybe that'll make you feel better. Because when it comes to sports, it all sucks. And as I said to my wife on Sunday, and this was before the Mets lost the game to the Diamondbacks, I said, baby, I'm really starting to come to the grips that I'm never going to see my team win a championship. Like I'm starting, it's it's hitting me. I used to say it like to Joe, and he, you got a lot of time, bro. Now it's hitting me in my 40s now with the Nets lottery issues, with the Mets going completely backwards, with the Jets always being the Jets. That's the thing that's going to happen. It's just not in the cards. Anyhow, make sure you've subscribed to the Rico