Stearns backs Mets' hitting coaches and expresses confidence lineup will break out of its slump
Stearns spoke before the Mets fell 3-2 to the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night for their ninth loss in their last 10 games. The skid has caused New York to drop 3 1/2 games behind first-place Philadelphia in the NL East, though the Mets are 3 1/2 games ahead of Cincinnati for the last National League wild card.
'Clearly everyone's frustrated,' Stearns said before Friday's game. 'Players are frustrated. At times, I've been frustrated. But I believe that this is a good offensive team. I believe in the offense that we have in place, and I'm confident we're going to see that going forward.'
The Mets have failed to exceed three runs in six of their last nine games. They have totaled 10 hits over their past three games, all losses.
Stearns expressed support for hitting coaches Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes.
'I have confidence in our hitting coaches,' Stearns said. 'I think we have good hitting coaches. They have track records of helping to lead and put together really quality offenses.'
The Mets arrived in Milwaukee after getting just one hit Wednesday — a ninth-inning homer by Juan Soto — in a 4-1 loss to Gavin Williams and the Cleveland Guardians.
Soto homered again Friday in the first inning off Milwaukee starter Brandon Woodruff. Starling Marte added a solo shot against Woodruff in the second to give New York a 2-0 lead.
But the Mets got just three more hits the rest of the night, and two of them came with two outs in the ninth. Marte doubled to right-center off Trevor Megill and then was thrown out at the plate trying to score the tying run on Jeff McNeil's single to center fielder Blake Perkins.
'Overall, in those middle innings, we had a hard time creating traffic,' Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. '(Woodruff) gave them seven innings, and we know how that bullpen's going to be. But I thought we had some good at-bats against Megill there, especially the last two guys. Turn the page.'
The Mets entered Friday ranked 15th in the majors in runs (501), 23rd in batting average (.239), 15th in on-base percentage (.318), 14th in slugging percentage (.404) and 13th in OPS (.722). Those weren't the results expected of a lineup that features 2024 NL MVP runner-up Francisco Lindor, Soto and five-time All-Star Pete Alonso.
Last year, the Mets were seventh in runs (768), 12th in batting average (.246), eighth in on-base percentage (.319), 10th in slugging percentage (.415) and ninth in OPS (.734) as they earned a wild-card playoff berth and ended up in the National League Championship Series.
'We haven't been hitting the last few games, but this is a team that continues to work hard, that has a great amount of talent,' Marte said through an interpeter after the game. 'Right now, we're hitting a low point in the season, but I know and I'm confident that this team's going to be able to turn it around because we work hard, we give our 100% day in and day out, and we show up.
'Right now, it's not going the way that we want it to, but eventually it's going to turn, and it's going to turn quickly.'
Stearns and Mendoza cited the track record of the Mets' hitters as reason to believe things will turn around soon.
'They're really good players and they've done it before,' Mendoza said before Friday's game. 'It's just, when you're going through it, it gets noisy, you know? But when you look at our players, when you look at that locker room, there's a lot of talent there. They'll get out of it.'
Stearns also pointed to the way the Mets' hitters have responded to this recent adversity.
'I think you go through our clubhouse, my guess is you sense frustration, but you're probably not sensing panic and you're probably also seeing a level of preparation and focus that's really good,' Stearns said. 'When I see those things, it gives me confidence that we're going to snap out of this.'
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
Steve Megargee, The Associated Press
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