MIAMI (AP) – The New York Mets concluded their regular season Sunday with a 4-0 defeat against the Miami Marlins, effectively eliminating them from playoff contention. The loss, a decisive one in the final inning, marked a stunning collapse for the star-studded club, following a previously dominant first half of the season.
Entering the day with a 45-24 record, the Mets held the best record in Major League Baseball after a 21-game winning streak that began on June 12. However, a concerning trend emerged following pitcher Kodai Senga’s hamstring injury in a home victory over the Washington Nationals. The subsequent seven-game losing streak, coupled with 10 of the next 11 losses, dramatically altered the Mets’ prospects.
The collapse resulted in a 38-55 record for the remainder of the season, a stark contrast to their initial success. The Mets’ struggles were compounded by pitching difficulties throughout the latter half of the season.
The loss at Miami impacted not only the Mets’ playoff aspirations but also the wild-card race. The Cincinnati Reds secured the final National League wild-card spot despite a 4-2 defeat against the Milwaukee Brewers. Cincinnati’s victory was secured by the head-to-head tiebreaker, having won four of the six meetings against the Mets this season. This represented the Reds’ first playoff berth since the shortened 2020 season.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza acknowledged the team’s poor second half performance as a key factor in their downfall.
A sellout crowd of 34,660, including former First Lady Ivanka Trump, witnessed the Mets’ demise. The team loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth inning, but a line drive out by slugger Pete Alonso extinguished their most significant offensive threat. Francisco Alvarez’s strikeout in the eighth inning further sealed the Mets’ fate, prompting a mass exodus from the stadium.
This outcome mirrored previous playoff disappointments for Mets fans, echoing similar endings in 2007 and 2008.
Fuente: https://sports.yahoo.com/article/mets-cant-overcome-poor-2nd-224350880.html