CHICAGO (AP) — The New York Mets have a long list of problems these days, and it seems like a carousel of issues.
“Just having a hard time playing a complete game right now,” manager Carlos Mendoza said.
New York placed infielder Jorge Polanco on the 10-day injured list on Saturday before dropping its 10th consecutive game. Brooks Raley surrendered Carson Kelly's tiebreaking three-run homer in the sixth inning of a 4-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs.
The season
is young, and the 7-14 Mets have plenty of established players. They had an opening day payroll of $352.2 million, tops in the majors.
But only four teams have reached the postseason after going through a double-digit losing streak, including the Cleveland Guardians last year and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2017.
“It's frustrating to lose baseball games anytime you lose, so when you lose this many in a row, it definitely compounds,” Mets second baseman Marcus Semien said. “But this is a big boy league. There's no time to dwell on tonight. Tomorrow is a new day.”
It’s the longest losing streak for New York since it dropped 11 in a row in 2004. It has been outscored 60-18 during the slide.
Juan Soto has been out since April 3 because of a strained right calf, and New York's lineup has struggled. The Mets have scored two or fewer runs in 11 of their 21 games, the highest such number for an NL team.
“I understand that the game does not owe you a thing. The game does not owe you any wins,” Semien said, “so we have to go out and get it.”
Mendoza, who got a vote of confidence from president of baseball operations David Stearns on Friday, acknowledged that the losing streak could be taking a mental toll on his team.
“I mean you can make a case,” Mendoza said. “Especially when you're going through a stretch like this, it's hard, it's hard. But nobody's going to feel sorry for us. You got to keep going. We haven't been playing good baseball. That's the bottom line.”
Polanco has a right wrist contusion. The IL move was made retroactive to Wednesday, a day after he went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts in a 2-1 loss at the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 32-year-old Polanco is batting .179 (10 for 56) with a homer and two RBIs in his first season with New York.
“When doctors first took a look at him, it looked like he got hit by a pitch when he didn't,” Mendoza said. "In talking to him, it was just a couple of swings that he took that night. ... He didn't think much of it, but just got worse the following day.
“So you just got to let it calm down a little bit and then we'll go from there. But we don't have a timetable for how long this is going to last.”
Polanco, who signed a $40 million, two-year contract with the Mets in December, also has been dealing with an ankle issue.
“He was trending in the right direction,” Mendoza said of the ankle injury. “It's definitely going to help, obviously now with him being shut down. But the biggest thing now is that we've got to take care of that wrist.”
The Mets also recalled catcher Hayden Senger from Triple-A Syracuse before their loss to the Cubs. The 29-year-old Senger is batting .257 with five homers and 11 RBIs in 12 games with Syracuse.
Senger's arrival gives Mendoza more flexibility with how he uses his top two catchers, Francisco Alvarez and Luis Torrens.
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