In many ways, Wednesday afternoon’s 4-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians felt like a low point for the 2025 Mets.
While David Peterson was solid but not spectacular on the mound, the entire lineup looked listless at the plate, as Guardians starter Gavin Williams carried a no-hitter through 8.1 innings.
With the loss, the Mets have now lost eight of their last nine games, remaining 2.5 games back of the Philadelphia Phillies, who also lost on Wednesday afternoon.
“You’ve got to give him credit,” manager Carlos Mendoza said about Williams. “Obviously, he was really good today using all of his pitches, but we also know that we’re better than that. They know they’re better than that. We just couldn’t make any adjustments. A lot of empty at-bats there.
“Yes, as good as he was, I feel like he gave us a few pitches to hit and we missed them.”
Williams struck out six Mets on the afternoon, but even when the Mets did put the ball in play, it was mostly weak contact, outside of a Francisco Lindor liner back to the mound in the first inning and a Mark Vientos flare in the seventh that forced C.J. Kayfus to make a diving catch.
The Mets finally scratched across a hit with one out in the ninth, as Juan Soto homered to straight-away center. But it was too little, too late.
“I really don’t know what is going on,” Soto said after the game. “We definitely have the talent and the guys who are capable to do damage here, so I think one day it’s going to turn around.”
“We have to be better,” Soto added later. “As a group we have to come through better and we have to do the adjustments. Nobody said it’s going to be easy to go all the way, but it’s a challenge. We’ve just got to go out there and take it from them. Nobody’s going to bring the trophy over here and give it to us, we gotta go out there and take it.”
Things don’t get any easier for the Mets in the immediate future, as the club has an off day on Thursday before starting a three-game series in Milwaukee against the Brewers, who have the best record in baseball at 69-44.
Mendoza isn’t losing confidence in his club, but he knows it’s time to get things turned around.
“I think the number one thing is just understanding that we’re going through it right now, but at the same time, we’ve got to find a way to turn the switch here,” Mendoza said. “We know you’re good, we know we’re good here, but we’ve got to go out there and do it. We’ll continue to have those discussions. We believe in those guys, obviously. It’s been a rough stretch here for a quite a bit now, and I know they’re working really hard. The messaging, obviously we have to be better. We have to continue to work hard, and we have to go out there and do it.”
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