Mets dig an even deeper hole with a bumbling homestand

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The Mets entered this homestand with Juan Soto about to return and matchups against the Twins, Rockies and Nationals — a trio that combined to lose more than 300 games last season. Three series wins wouldn’t have turned New York’s dismal season around, but it would have temporarily stopped the bleeding. Instead, the Mets lost six of nine and sent two more key players to the injured list, including Francisco Lindor for a significant period. It would have been hard to imagine them being worse off than when they returned home at 7-15. Here we are. The Mets’ 10-21 start is their worst since 1981 and sits alone as the third-worst in franchise history. It is two games — two games — behind the pace of the expansion ’62 Mets. “Not good enough, obviously. Not a secret,” said manager Carlos Mendoza, whose job status is questioned after every loss. “That’s not going to do it. We’ve got to start winning series, period.” The Mets have lost 17 of their last 20 games, their worst 20-game stretch since 2018. They have endured 3-17 stretches in 13 different seasons; none of those teams finished above .500. (But hey, two National League teams in the past decade have lost 17 of 20 and recovered to win the pennant: the 2017 Dodgers and 2023 Diamondbacks.) “We sit there and we tell you guys, ‘It’ll come. This is the game. This is the law of averages,’” said Weaver. “But those words just don’t hold the same weight when you continue to (lose) day after day.” The thing is, 31 games into this season, it’s fair to question what, if anything, these Mets do well. The offense remains a mess. Soto’s return has provided a centerpiece, but even a red-hot Soto can only do so much. Over the past two days, he went 5-for-8 with a homer, two doubles and a walk. He was also robbed of a home run in Thursday’s first inning by an incredible leaping catch from Washington’s James Wood. Soto scored three runs in those two games; the rest of the team scored three. Take Thursday’s eighth inning. Soto led off with a long double off the center-field wall against Richard Lovelady. Mendoza decided to pinch hit for MJ Melendez — who’d delivered the team’s biggest hit of the day with a three-run homer in the third and has been the only player besides Soto in any kind of offensive rhythm — with Austin Slater for the platoon matchup. Slater grounded out, Mark Vientos lined out, and Tyrone Taylor flied out. Soto didn’t advance beyond second base. The Mets started six players who entered Thursday carrying a season-long OPS below .600. That doesn’t include Vientos’ .630 to start action. The league average is .714. The pitching staff does not escape culpability. The back half of the rotation has routinely been non-competitive. The back end of the bullpen has not locked down the few games the Mets have led into the later innings. New York lost Thursday despite leading after six innings; no team has a worse record when leading after six innings than the Mets’ 6-4. (Entering play Thursday, the other 29 teams were 333-55 in that situation, a winning percentage of .858.) The defense, while improved year over year, is not a standout strength. In a one-run game, Wood’s home-run robbery saved the Nats a run, and starter Freddy Peralta’s throwing error in the second inning cost him two runs. You can blame Mendoza for decisions like pinch hitting Slater on Thursday and for the persistent inability to reverse a negative trendline since last June. You can blame David Stearns for a roster that isn’t nearly as deep as the Mets believed it was at the start of the season. New York has not been able to withstand a position-player parade to the injured list that was foreseeable, given the durability issues of several players the club brought in over the offseason. And as this snowball has rolled in the wrong direction, the Mets have become as clear an example of a team pressing day after day as you’ll see in the sport. They chase. They miss mistake pitches. They make too many mistakes of their own. “The freedom with which we play day-to-day is being suffocated a little bit,” Weaver said Thursday. “The magnification just becomes immense, and sleep is lost and the mind wanders and you get into a fixation that you don’t need to be in. The answer is simplifying the process and maybe doing less and enjoying why you do this for a living.” They will now try to find that answer out west, with a nine-game trip to Anaheim, Denver and Phoenix. The Mets have to do it without Lindor and others. “It’s not early anymore,” Mendoza said. “We have to turn this thing around. … There are no other choices here.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms