For weeks, the Mets talked like there was still time to fix things. Carlos Mendoza stopped talking that way Monday night.
“It’s not early anymore.”
That was Mendoza’s assessment after the Mets fell 7-2 to the Reds, dropping New York to 22-32 and 10 games under .500 at the one-third mark of the season.
The standings are forcing honesty
Monday’s loss was New York’s fourth straight. The Mets were swept by the Marlins over the weekend while scoring two total runs in three games, then allowed seven to Cincinnati while wasting scoring chances again.
Mendoza skipped the clichés afterward. “Whatever I say here, it doesn’t matter,” he told reporters. “We got to go out and do it.”
The offense Mendoza keeps warning about
The Mets finished Monday with nine hits, which made the two runs harder to take. Mendoza pointed at the lack of power afterward, describing how tough it is to score “by just singles.”
The numbers track with him. New York has been one of baseball’s weakest slugging teams in May, near the bottom of MLB in extra-base production despite the occasional outburst. The lineup rarely creates quick damage and often needs three or four hits to manufacture a single run, and right now the rallies are disappearing entirely.
Nolan McLean’s rough night
Monday also brought another tough outing for Nolan McLean, whose promising rookie stretch has turned unstable. He allowed seven earned runs in 3.1 innings against Cincinnati, extending a two-start run in which he has surrendered 13 earned runs.
McLean was blunt about it: “It’s just bad pitching honestly.” The tone matched Mendoza’s, with nobody around the Mets framing this as random bad luck.
The injuries are thinning everything out
New York is also navigating a growing injury list. Tyrone Taylor left Monday’s game with hip pain and is likely headed for an MRI, while Juan Soto has already missed multiple games with illness. Francisco Lindor remains sidelined, Francisco Alvarez is out after knee surgery, and several important pitchers are on the injured list. The injuries are real, and a 22-32 record runs deeper than them.
A quote that sounded final
Mendoza’s “It’s not early anymore” line stripped away the safety blanket that had surrounded the Mets for most of the spring. Teams survive ugly Aprils and short slumps. The danger arrives when the standings stop looking temporary, which is where the Mets sit now, with their manager sounding like he knows it.
