This is the point where the Mets were in 2015, 2016, and 2017.  A Mets team with much promise has either regressed or been exposed, and you are left wondering how exactly things were going to get better for this team.

One of the more troubling things we saw both yesterday and throughout this season was how Noah Syndergaard hasn’t been Thor.  It’s not too dissimilar to how Matt Harvey had stopped being The Dark Knight, except with Syndergaard there really isn’t any reason to suspect any injury.

That’s not to say Thor was or has been bad.  Far from it.  His only allowing two runs over six innings is a testament to that.  However, it was the way he pitched that was the problem.

A pitcher with remarkable control walked four batters.  That included him issuing back-to-back walks in the third inning to Nolan Arenado and Gerardo Parra to force in a run.  Between that and the solo home run he allowed to Ian Desmond in the second, he gave away the Mets 2-0 lead.  Yes, it was a thin margin of error, but we have seen Thor thrive with even narrower margins.

The Mets two runs were scored in the first off of Kyle Freeland.  The first run was the result of three straight singles from Juan Lagares, Yoenis Cespedes, and Asdrubal Cabrera to start the game.  After that, Todd Frazier hit a sacrifice fly to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.  In that first inning, Cespedes once again injured his right quad:

I thought he was just doing the Robert Gsellman exercises pic.twitter.com/aUQXXO631T

— Meditations in Panic City (@MedInPanicCity) May 6, 2018

He would be removed from the game for Brandon Nimmo, who we would find out can still draw a walk off a left-handed pitcher, but with two strikeouts, he sure does struggle hitting off of them.

Really, the Mets struggled to hit Freeland for the rest of the game.  After that three hit onslaught to begin the game, the Mets would get just one more hit off of him until he departed after seven strong innings.

With the Mets not hitting, Syndergaard settling back down, and Jerry Blevins and AJ Ramos combining to pitch a scoreless seventh, Mickey Callaway went to Hansel Robles in the eighth.  No one can be quite sure if Robles pointed to the sky again, but we do know he surrendered another homer.  This time to Desmond, his second of the game.

With the Mets inability to hit right now, it might as well have been a walk-off home run for all intents and purposes.

The 3-2 loss ended a dreadful home stand which saw the Mets go 0-6.  They pitched poorly and hit even worse.  They dropped from first to third place in the NL East.  They don’t look like a team in a freefall inasmuch as they look like a bad baseball team without any answers.  Hopefully, the trip to Cincinnati and Philadelphia will awaken their bats.  Although, we should shutter to thing what will happen to the pitching.

Game Notes: Wilmer Flores was 0-2 with a walk against Freeland.  He is now hitting .161/.235/.226 off of left-handed pitching this season.