Fading to Black

"Enter Gregory Soto, who simultaneously has been quietly terrible and in the top half of the Mets' trade-deadline acquisitions in terms of performance, which tells you all you need to know about how the trade deadline has turned out. Soto immediately allowed the inherited runner to score, escaped the fifth without further harm, and then fell apart in the sixth, putting the game out of reach."

"To dwell further on the nightly failures of this increasingly woebegotten team would verge on sadism: The Mets are now 31-46 since June 13, the fourth-worst team in the majors, and the real story of this year increasingly is about the nearly three months in which we've tried to convince ourselves that they somehow aren't the team we've been watching fall flat all summer. It's pointless to scoreboard-watch and worry about a specific team on their heels in the wild-card hunt; as the SNY crew noted, if they don't start winning games, someone is going to catch them."

"One culprit noted in the Mets' summer swoon was their apparent passivity on fastballs. For a while the Mets seemed to have flipped the script on that, hunting fastballs and rejuvenating their offense (the pitching failed at the same time, alas). But now they look befuddled by fastballs again. To be fair, Ranger Suarez and Cristopher Sanchez have pitched two beautiful games and would have been tough opponents against anybody. But the Mets were particularly hapless Wednesday night against Sanchez's sinker. How did this lesson get unlearned?"

Clay Holmes gave up two runs early but limited further damage and left in the fifth trailing 3-1. Gregory Soto allowed an inherited runner to score, then deteriorated in the sixth and put the game out of reach. The Mets have gone 31-46 since June 13, ranking among the worst teams in the majors and enduring a prolonged midseason collapse that imperils wild-card hopes. Hitting briefly improved when the team chased fastballs, but that approach has regressed, while opposing pitchers like Ranger Suarez and Cristopher Sanchez delivered dominant outings, especially Sanchez's sinker.

Read at Faithandfearinflushing