Mets Drop Second Straight To Mariners, 8-3, As Sloppy Play Continues to Haunt Them

New York Mets lost their second straight game to the Seattle Mariners, 8-2, as their sloppy play continued to haunt them, and manager Carlos Mendoza wasn’t shy about unloading on his team after this one.

“We didn’t play well,” manager Carlos Mendoza said., according to Anthony DiComo of MLB com.  “We didn’t pitch well, didn’t make a couple of plays behind our pitching staff. It was just sloppy.”

You don't need a blow-by-blow to understand what turned this game into a blowout. The game was tied at 2-2 in the third inning when Marcus Semien and Mark Vientos committed errors on back-to-back plays. Mendoza described Vientos' error as "a routine play" and those errors put the Mets behind as the Mariners kept scoring.

It was another Vientos misplay that helped him do the Mets. He failed to field a chopper hit by Cole Young in the fifth, and as DiComo noted, Jhonny Pereda hit a three-run homer to turn the game into a route. 

Jonah Tong got hit hard in this one as he tried to reestablish himself in the Mets rotation. He gave up five runs in 3-1/3 innings, and Tong needed 83 pitches to record just ten outs. 

Vientos didn’t exactly deliver the answers fans want to hear when he spoke after the game about the Mets inconsistent, spotty play. 

"I think that’s just baseball,” Vientos said. “Especially right now, there’s so much talent. There are so many good teams. You could sweep a team, and then you could get swept. But our job is to prevent that, prevent it as much as possible and just get on a hot streak and stay hot. It’s tough. We’re all working. We’re all pushing. From the coaching staff to all the players, we’ve been pushing.”

Mendoza summed up the spotty defense by verifying what the eye test is showing.

"There’s been stretches where we’ve been playing well defensively,” Mendoza said, “and then there’s been stretches where we’re making errors on routine plays.”

He finished his summary with some of the same comments Mets fans have been hearing for months now, dating back to last season. When asked if it was too late for the Mets to turn things around, the manager said “I don’t think so.” 

"But we’ve got to start playing better -- that’s the bottom line,” he said. “Until we start playing consistent baseball, that’s the only way to get out of it.”

Mendoza seems to be made of teflon in this process, and it’s fair to ask why. The Mets dropped back to nine games under .500 as they remain stuck in a rut, and they're now  back in the basement in the NL East, a game-and-a-half behind the Miami Marlins.