WASHINGTON — If “chicks dig the long ball,” as an advertising campaign once suggested, the Mets are spending plenty of time alone playing video games.
On Monday, they went a fifth straight game without a home run in losing 10-3 to the Nationals.
Overall, it’s a drought of 52 innings without a homer for the Mets since Pete Alonso went deep Wednesday in Cincinnati.
“It is hard to win that way in today’s game,” Brandon Nimmo said. “Everyone is really good here and [pitchers] are trying to stay off of barrels and a lot of ways teams win is by just trying to hit a couple of home runs a game off of really good pitchers and maybe you win 2-0. But that hasn’t been the case for us.”
Alonso entered Monday as the MLB leader in home runs with 13, but behind him there’s been a drastic drop-off — Francisco Lindor (six) is the only Mets player with more than three.
The Mets rank 21st in MLB with 41 homers.
The Mets’ lone offensive explosion over the last week occurred in the second game of a doubleheader Sunday, when they scored eight runs in the fifth inning.
“It just puts a little bit more on each guy having a quality at-bat and we haven’t gotten some of those clutch hits in the recent past,” Nimmo said of the home run drought.
Tomas Nido, who is experimenting with lenses for his vision problems caused by dry eye syndrome, might not return from the injured list on Wednesday when he is eligible, according to Buck Showalter.
The Mets last week selected Michael Perez to serve as Francisco Alvarez’s backup at catcher while Nido is sidelined.
The Mets also have veteran Gary Sanchez at Triple-A Syracuse.
Carlos Carrasco is a candidate for insertion into the rotation on Friday or Saturday, according to Showalter, depending upon how he comes through his upcoming work day.
The right-hander pitched four innings for Double-A Binghamton on Sunday in his second minor league rehab start as he returns from right elbow swelling.
Mark Vientos homered — the blast was his 12th of the season — for Syracuse on Monday. The 23-year-old infielder owns a 1.092 OPS in 136 at-bats this season.
“He’s doing fine,” Showalter said. “He has to master that level. He’s working and getting a chance to play third base a lot with Brett [Baty] not there. He is improving there.”