Just when it looked as if things couldn’t get any worse for the New York Mets on Wednesday night at Citi Field, disgruntled fans rubbed it in with a reminder of what could have been.
The Mets were swept in a doubleheader Wednesday by the Chicago Cubs. They’ve lost five straight games by a combined score of 50-19. At 34-46 on the season, the Mets have the third-worst record in the National League — despite having the second-highest payroll in all of baseball at $368.7 million.
Very little has gone right for the Mets this season. Star players Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto have both missed significant time with injuries. The starting rotation has been hit by injuries and inconsistency. Two of the key additions the team made to bolster the lineup during the offseason — infielder Jorge Polanco and outfielder Luis Robert Jr. — have missed much of the season because of injuries.
To make matters worse, Polanco and Robert were brought in to at least partially fill the shoes of a beloved Mets star who left in free agency: Pete Alonso.
Alonso, the Mets’ career home run leader with 264, exercised an opt-out in his contract after last season and signed a five-year, $155 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles in December. He said the Mets never made him an offer.
Alonso currently has 18 home runs and 53 RBIs for the Orioles — both of those numbers would lead the Mets this season.
After leading 3-0 in the first game of their day-night doubleheader, the Mets ended up losing 10-3. In the ninth inning of the nightcap, with the Cubs leading 8-5 (before going on to win 10-5), unhappy Mets fans began chanting, “Pete Alonso! Pete Alonso!”
The Mets are currently 14.5 games out of first place in the NL East and nine games out of the final wild-card spot. After Thursday night’s series finale against the Cubs, they play three games at home against the second-place Philadelphia Phillies, followed by three-game road trips to the Toronto Blue Jays and first-place Atlanta Braves.
If they don’t turn things around soon, “Pete Alonso!” might be the nicest chant they hear.
