The 2026 Mets will happily burst your bubble. Coming off a weekend that saw them take two of three from the Braves, the Mets’ series opener against the Reds offered the opportunity to take another step forward. Instead, they fell behind 9-0 early, left an incredible number of runners on base in the middle innings, and saw mop-up man David Peterson serve up a three-home run run in the bottom of the eighth—and found themselves getting shut out just three quick outs later.
When the Mets optioned Tobias Myers to Triple-A Syracuse recently, there was some reporting that the organization intended to stretch him out. While he was there, though, his outings resembled the ones he had made at the major league level.
Whatever the case with the plan, or the lack of one, Myers looked downright awful in his return from the minors. In one-and-one-third innings, he threw 43 pitches, gave up a staggering seven earned runs, struck out one, walked three, and gave up four hits.
Jonathan Pintaro wasn’t nearly that bad, but he gave up a pair of runs of his own in the bottom of the second after taking over for Myers. The Mets were down by nine. To his credit, Pintaro put up three scoreless innings from there.
A capable major league lineup could’ve easily gotten back into the game with the opportunities that presented themselves over those aforementioned middle innings. The Mets loaded the bases in the fourth and failed to score. They loaded them again in the fifth, and they failed to score once again. They got two runners on base in the sixth, but they failed to score then, too. And they loaded the bases in the seventh but failed to score again.
Add all of that up, and the Mets left eleven runners on base over the course of four innings, an impressive exercise in futility.
Even after the series win over the weekend, the Mets had a lot of work to do. But if you were feeling optimistic and thinking that the Mets might be able to pass the Reds in the standings by the end of this three-game series, well, there goes that.
WPA to follow
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