This all comes down to talent evaluation and the willingness to spend money.
Give the Mets an “F’’ so far on both counts.
The middle of the lineup has become the team’s soft underbelly and that weakness was once again exposed in the Mets’ 2-1 loss to the Diamondbacks in the first game of a doubleheader Sunday at Citi Field as two struggling teams did all they could to lose.
The Mets chose Chris Young over Nelson Cruz, Lucas Duda over Ike Davis, who returns to Citi Field Monday with the Pirates, and picked Curtis Granderson to be their big free-agent acquisition.
General manager Sandy Alderson and Company thought that middle of the lineup would help the Mets attain 90 wins.
Instead, it has become middle-of-the-lineup mayhem. Don’t expect Young (.204) to start Monday. He was replaced as a starter by Bobby Abreu in the nightcap Sunday as the 40-year-old produced an RBI double in the Mets’ 4-2 win. Terry Collins said he expects to start Abreu on Monday.
With Davis back in town, Collins noted of the Duda-Davis battle, “It will be quite a homecoming at first base there.
“When we approached spring training the one thing that we thought that we had really improved on was that we got some guys in the middle of the lineup that could certainly help produce some runs,’’ Collins said. “We just have not situationally done what we thought we could do.’’
The Mets haven’t scored more than five runs at home in a nine-inning game since April 5, when Davis hit a walk-off grand slam.
Some serious self-evaluation is on tap.
Said Alderson: “Several weeks ago it was Curtis Granderson (.216) who was struggling, and we’re not going to hit on all cylinders all the time, so, we’ve got to give Chris an opportunity to get back on track. That doesn’t mean that anything is guaranteed, but if he’s going to have value to us going through the rest of the season, we’ve got to try to get him back on track.
“With Chris, we were looking at something in the .240 to .250 range with some power, and a guy who will take a walk occasionally with a decent on-base percentage, so in a couple of weeks he can be right there.’’
Neither Duda (.228) nor Young started the second game as the Mets managed to go 4-for-13 with runners in scoring position before an intimate gathering of about 3,000 fans, salvaging the final game of the series.
In the first game, the Mets went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position. The Diamondbacks were 0-for-8, but Daniel Murphy’s costly error handed Arizona what turned out to be the winning run in the ninth.
Duda left seven men on base in Saturday night’s loss, six in the first game Sunday, and two in the nightcap in a pinch-hit appearance, but he will be back at first Monday for Davis’ return. Duda bounced into a double play with the bases loaded to end the eighth in that first game. The Mets have no RBIs and are hitless in their last nine at-bats with the bases loaded.
The good news for the Mets is the Diamondbacks were worse with runners in scoring position: 0-for-13 in the doubleheader.
“We have got to start scoring some runs,’’ Collins said. “We’re beating a dead horse here. It’s the same stuff every day.’’
The Mets had 16 men reach base in that first game and scored once, only the fifth time in franchise history that has happened in a nine-inning game, and the first time in 37 years. As old No. 37 Casey Stengel said, “Can’t anybody here play this game?’’
Young came to bat three times with runners in scoring position in Game 1 and fouled to the catcher and hit into two double plays.
“Once in a while they have to look in the mirror and take it upon themselves,’’ Collins finally said of his players. “This isn’t football where you get to play once a week. Every day they have to get themselves ready. They certainly know what’s expected, that’s been said.’’
Over and over again.