\n<\/p>\n
\u201cPeriods of happiness are empty pages in history.<\/em>\u201d Sixteen games into the season, the 2026 Mets look and sound a lot like the 2025 Mets.<\/p>\n A 1-0 loss to the Athletics on Sunday punctuated a putrid sweep and pushed New York\u2019s losing streak to five. The Mets are 7-9 and flying west for arguably their toughest trip of the season, with three at Dodger Stadium followed by three at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n \u201cTough homestand overall offensively,\u201d manager Carlos Mendoza said of six games in which the Mets scored 13 runs. \u201cAt times chasing, passive, in between. A few innings with non-competitive at-bats. It\u2019s not creating enough traffic to put together a rally.\u201d<\/p>\n You could copy\/paste the summary of this game from Friday night\u2019s shutout loss to the A\u2019s. In that one, the Mets had six hits and went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position. In this one, they had four hits and went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position. They had just 28 at-bats with runners in scoring position over the homestand.<\/p>\n You could also copy\/paste the postgame reactions from any point over the final 3 1\/2 months of last season, albeit with different players presenting the perspective.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to stay consistent and stay positive with the guys,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of good hitters here. It\u2019s just a bad stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know we are way better than this,\u201d said starter Freddy Peralta, hit with the loss despite six innings of one-run ball. \u201cWe have a great team and we believe in each other.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019ve got our heads down about this, we\u2019ve got bigger issues,\u201d Bo Bichette said.<\/p>\n Look, that\u2019s probably the right approach to take with 146 games left in the regular season. A 7-9 record isn\u2019t as damning in baseball as it is in football, after all. Two teams this decade have won the World Series after 7-9 starts. Seven teams all-time have won the title with 16-game starts worse than 7-9, including the 1969 Mets.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s no denying how frustrating it is for the fan base to hear the same the-talent-is-here rhetoric one year after the Mets cited it endlessly while giving away a postseason spot over the final months of the season to the 83-win Reds. You can only hear \u201cwe\u2019ve got to be better\u201d so long before wondering if the team can be better, especially when the team makes three ninth-inning outs on four pitches and is making the kind of daily mental mistakes the Mets have made over the past week. (On Sunday at least, it was only Peralta forgetting the count.)<\/p>\n Early returns only reinforce the most pessimistic view of David Stearns\u2019 roster reconstruction. An offense built around contact more than power has struggled to hit for extra bases; the Mets entered the day in the bottom half of the league in extra-base hits, and they collected only singles on Sunday. Only seven of their 42 hits during this homestand went for extra bases. (Sure, Citi Field is tough in April, but New York\u2019s opponents had 20 extra-base hits in these six games.)<\/p>\n Additionally, the Mets\u2019 walk rate is in the bottom third of the league. (This is a bit of a statistical oddity: New York\u2019s 9.1 percent walk rate was fifth-best in baseball last season. Its 9.2 percent walk rate \u2014 so a better one \u2014 ranked 23rd entering Sunday.)<\/p>\n A position player group with durability concerns has tested New York\u2019s depth early. Juan Soto is on the injured list, Jorge Polanco has played just two games in the field, and on Sunday, Luis Robert Jr. was not available to play defense because he\u2019d started the prior five games. So when opportunities to hit Robert for Jared Young against a lefty in the sixth or for Tyrone Taylor in the eighth came up, Mendoza didn\u2019t use him.<\/p>\n Young, the last man to make the team out of spring training, hit third twice in the series against the Athletics. Carson Benge, hitting .130 with a .231 on-base percentage, has actually moved up the batting order since Opening Day.<\/p>\n And the Mets\u2019 pitching staff has not been good enough to overcome the offense\u2019s prolonged slump. New York swiftly trailed games 5-0 and 7-1 behind David Peterson and Kodai Senga, respectively. Overall, the staff allowed at least three runs in seven different innings this homestand. The offense scored at least three runs in only two games (and never in a single inning).<\/p>\n A team is never as bad as it feels like in these moments. But it sure feels bad around the Mets right now.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to do better,\u201d Peralta said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get through these moments.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mets were swept by the Athletics and have lost five in a row. At 7-9, they\u2019re last in the National League East.<\/p>\n The Dodgers were unable to finish a sweep of the Rangers on Sunday. Nevertheless, Los Angeles\u2019 11-4 record is the best in baseball.<\/p>\n The Cubs avoided a sweep by walking off the Pirates on Sunday. Chicago is 7-8 and last in the NL Central. It will play in Philadelphia Monday through Wednesday.<\/p>\n at Los Angeles<\/em><\/p>\n LHP David Peterson (0-2, 6.14 ERA) v. LHP Justin Wrobleski (1-0, 4.00 ERA) at Chicago<\/em><\/p>\n RHP Kodai Senga (0-2, 7.07) v. RHP Edward Cabrera (1-0, 1.62) On Tuesday, Sean Manaea reached 10 years of service time \u2014 a nice round number and the time at which a player qualifies for a full lifetime pension. Only about 10 percent of players who appear in a major-league game reach 10 years of service time, so I asked Manaea about how reaching that milestone resonates.<\/p>\n Does reaching that mark create a moment of introspection, like \u2018It\u2019s pretty cool I got here\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s incredible. My career\u2019s been full of ups and downs, but I\u2019ve survived all of it. I\u2019m just extremely proud of myself for sticking through all the hard times. It puts everything into perspective that if you want something, you\u2019ve got to work for it. It\u2019s not going to be easy, but it\u2019s definitely worth it when you get to that milestone. I\u2019m one of not many guys that do it, so I\u2019m super happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014\u201cIntroduction to the Philosophy of History,\u201d G.W.F. Hegel<\/em><\/p>\nThe exposition<\/h2>\n
The pitching possibles<\/h2>\n
RHP Nolan McLean (1-1, 2.70) v. RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2-1, 2.50)
RHP Clay Holmes (2-1, 1.50) v. RHP Shohei Ohtani (1-0, 0.00)<\/p>\n
RHP Freddy Peralta (1-1, 3.86) v. RHP Jameson Taillon (0-1, 4.86)
LHP David Peterson v. LHP Matthew Boyd (1-1, 6.75)<\/p>\nOne Q and one A<\/h2>\n
Injury updates<\/h2>\n