By 3:50 p.m. yesterday, every Met walked out of the clubhouse to stretch. They then went through drills as if it were spring training. Guys worked on pickoff moves and fielding bunts. Bobby Valentine said it was nothing unusual.
“Just getting the kinks out,” said Valentine, who had a meeting as he usually does to start the second half of a season.
The Mets spent the All-Star break trying to forget the first half of the season. Even those who thought the Mets wouldn’t be as good as last year’s National League Champions couldn’t have predicted the Mets would be this bad.
They will try to develop amnesia about the first half of the season. How bad was it? If the Mets were to win 36 straight, then they would be at 51 losses at the same time as last year. The Mets ended the first half at 38-51. Last year, loss No. 51. came on Aug. 21. They were 74-51, 2½ games behind the first-place Braves.
The Mets’ longest winning streak this season is four games.
They all know they must hit better. They ended the first half with a .241 average with runners in scoring position. The team’s slugging percentage, .382, was the worst in the majors.
“We haven’t hit with runners in scoring position,” Jay Payton said. “We haven’t scored guys from third base with less than two outs. We haven’t moved guys over with less than two outs. We need to come out and pick it up.
“If we can get the same kind of pitching we got in the first half and score some more runs then we are going to pick up some wins.”
The pitching has been solid. Last season at the halfway point, the Mets’ ERA was 4.51. This year, it is 4.52. This is without Al Leiter for nearly a month. So you couldn’t really ask for too much more from the team’s starters.
“Our pitching to me has been pretty good,” Payton said. “It has been reflective of our offense why I think our record is the way it is. We’re just going to have to pick it up.”
The Mets began last night, trailing the Phillies by 13 games and the Braves by 12.
Compared to last year, the Mets are scoring nearly a run-and-a-half less than last season. Last year, they were at 5.30 runs per outing. This season, they are scoring 3.82 runs a game.
“You can’t look ahead,” said Joe McEwing, who started in right last night. “You can’t look behind.”
The Mets know that this month could be a month of change. Not in their season, but in their roster. In two-and-a-half weeks, the trading deadline arrives.
GM Steve Phillips is going to sell more than he is going to buy. But how much is the most interesting question this month.
Phillips wants to win next year and doesn’t plan on any long-range rebuilding project. So a deal involving someone like Leiter doesn’t make much sense. If Leiter isn’t on the Mets next year, then how are they going to win? Prospects for Leiter would seem to go against that plan.
So Phillips will look to deal. The most likely guys to go are Dennis Cook and Rick White.
Everyone’s name, except for Piazza’s, will probably be brought up. But now it is time to get back to work. The three-day respite from the miserable is over. Last night the Mets tried to start making everyone, including themselves, forget about it.