“Nobody had a destiny. One simply decided to feign one until one came to believe it oneself. But so many things didn’t fit with it, one had to really force oneself.”
—“Measuring the World,” Daniel KehlmannEven on the longest day of the year, night encroaches swiftly on the 2026 Mets.They lost another series Sunday night, dropping the rubber game 6-2 to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. They once again fell behind by a significant margin early, with Kyle Schwarber’s fourth home run in two days, this one off David Peterson, propelling Philadelphia to a five-run advantage in the second inning.The optimistic Mets fan — who does exist but, like snow leopards, requires patient observation to spot in the wild these days — can point to the club’s offensive strides and wonder how much better that group can get with returning regulars. After all, Francisco Lindor could be back this week, and the Mets have averaged right around 4.50 runs per game since the start of May with expected numbers even better than that.The problem, though, is how poor starting pitching undercuts that offense, rendering so much of what it does meaningless. In their four losses this week, the Mets trailed by three, four, five and nine after the second inning. That three-run deficit, by the way, was 11 after the third frame. The Mets’ win probability had dipped below 12 percent by the third inning in each of the four losses.Only the Rockies this season have allowed more runs in the first three innings than the Mets, who have a 5.49 ERA in the first third of games. (In a weird twist, only the Dodgers have yielded fewer runs in the middle third of a game than the Mets.)“It’s really tough to give up the lead right away,” said Juan Soto. “We’ve got to play better baseball.”“They know they have to be better,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “That’s where it starts. We expect more out of them; they expect more out of themselves.”And whereas the offense has reinforcements coming, this is largely the staff the Mets are operating with. Yes, Christian Scott should be back in the next two weeks, which means the Mets shouldn’t have Peterson and Kodai Senga starting on consecutive nights much longer. But even with Scott back, the Mets will be leaning a lot on Scott, Freddy Peralta, Nolan McLean and Sean Manaea. Peralta, McLean and Manaea have all gone through it at some point this season.
