CHICAGO — Plenty had already gone wrong for the Mets by the fifth inning Wednesday, when Clay Holmes slipped on the Wrigley Field mound and uncorked a wild pitch. His thoughts drifted to his own frustration and not to Pete Crow-Armstrong, who was racing around third base with an intention to score.
By the time Holmes noticed what was happening, it was too late. Crow-Armstrong slid home safely, beat his chest and flashed a Steph Curry-style sleeper celebration on his way back to the dugout. The rest of the Mets’ 10-3 loss to the Cubs was a formality.
Once again in another crucial game, the Mets committed a cavalcade of physical and mental mistakes. Once again, none of it immediately came back to haunt them, as the both the Reds and Diamondbacks lost to keep the Mets in control of their own playoff destiny.
The Mets know they cannot keep playing like this and survive into October … unless they can? In the aftermath of another sloppy loss, one question loomed large: Does anyone want the final National League Wild Card spot?
“We’ve got to play better,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We didn’t play good again today. It doesn’t matter what other teams are doing. It starts on us. We’re better than that.”
That Holmes was even on the mound was a sign of how desperate the Mets have become. When Tuesday’s starting pitcher, David Peterson, recorded only four outs, it created a ripple effect on the rest of the staff. New York used six arms in relief of Peterson but didn’t want to option any of them to the Minors, knowing such a transaction would take them out of play for the first two postseason rounds.
Instead, not long after the Cubs pounded Jonah Tong’s fastball for five runs in the third inning Wednesday, Mendoza turned to Holmes and Sean Manaea. Both are season-long starters who had pitched Sunday in a piggyback effort. Both volunteered to throw on short rest on what would have been their bullpen days. Feeling the heat of a playoff race, Mendoza took them up on it.
“At this point, from now until the rest of the year … it’s kind of, ‘Win or go home,’” Holmes said. “That’s started for us. It’s really about how you can win today.”
“We’ll piece it together,” Mendoza added. “We’ll continue to find ways to get 27 outs and get the wins that we need here.”
The question is how. In allowing at least five runs for the second time in three starts, Tong turned the idea of pitching him again this season into a dicey proposition. The Mets are already leaning against using Kodai Senga at any point. They may ask Peterson to move to the bullpen. Holmes and Manaea won’t be available again until at least Saturday.
While New York does have Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat going the next two days, those two — for as successful as they’ve been — are still relatively untested rookies. The Mets are placing an awful lot of team success on their shoulders.
Nor are they offering much help along the way. For example, it was Mark Vientos’ fielding error that led to Crow-Armstrong reaching base in the first place. One night earlier, Juan Soto had cost the Mets two runs with a misplay in right field, among other mistakes. Although Soto and Francisco Alvarez both homered on Wednesday, the Mets lost for the seventh time this season when allowing 10-plus runs. They have played sloppy baseball for much of the stretch run.
“This is the big leagues,” Mendoza said. “Routine plays, we expect those plays to be made.”
Despite it all, no NL rival has managed to take the Wild Card lead away from them for more than about 24 hours. The Mets are well aware of all the extended opportunities they’ve been given. Mendoza, who rarely admits to scoreboard-watching, said he noticed when the Reds lost an extra-innings game to the Pirates. He surely kept his eye on the television as the Diamondbacks played out their game against the Dodgers.
“We control our own destiny, in a way,” shortstop Francisco Lindor said, confirming his own glances at the out-of-town scoreboard. “It’s all about winning. It’s only natural we peek.”
