Palladino: Mets Need To Solve Road Woes Before It's Too Late
By Ernie Palladino
» More Ernie Palladino Columns
The Mets can lay the blame anywhere they wish for the issues that had them in second place and one game over .500 Monday. But it all adds up to the fact that, for this squad, winning on the road comes about as easy as quantum physics to an English Lit major.
They can look at manager Terry Collins' odd pitching decision Friday, when he removed a perfectly good Jacob deGrom to roll the dice with an ice-cold bullpen hand. They can blame poor Wilmer Flores -- doesn't it always come back to him these days? -- for fielding deficiencies that cast a huge shadow over his true value at the plate. Or point a finger at an offensive malaise that continued with Matt Harvey's 1-0 loss in Atlanta on Father's Day, when the Mets mustered just four hits.
They can decry an injury situation that has already consumed Daniel Murphy and David Wright, and has just afflicted Travis d'Arnaud (again) and closer Jeurys Familia, if only for a short time.
There is little doubt that all those factors and more come into play in placing Collins' squad squarely before its latest crossroad. But the one flaw that has truly stood out can be encapsulated in one single, damning statistic: 10-24, otherwise notable as one of baseball's rockiest road records.
Even beyond this current five-game losing streak, they're so lost away from Citi Field that if they had to drive the bus themselves, they'd probably never make it to the stadium. To term their troubles as bumps in the avenue is like calling the Grand Canyon a pothole.
As stellar as their 26-11 home record looks, that's how badly the road has treated them. Only the Phillies' 7-28 mark stands worse in all of baseball. And remember, nothing short of a miracle will pull that team out of their last-place, 15-game hole in the NL East.
That the Mets have wavered between first and second place all season is a testament to their diligence at home. But imagine where they would be if they had won just five or six more games on the road. They'd be sitting in the division lead, with a little breathing room between themselves and Washington which, by the way, is not exactly a road dynamo, either, at 18-19.
But there they sit, 1.5 games now off the division lead, victims of themselves as much as their opponents. For all that has afflicted them away from Citi Field, one factor has completely bulldozed them.
Attitude.
The collective mentality, from manager on down, has not included the killer instinct it takes to win consistently away from home.
They have shown neither resilience nor tenacity away from their own building.
Basically, they've been one, big brain lock.
To be fair, only San Francisco (21-14), St. Louis (19-17) and Chicago (19-17) have winning road records in the NL. But dominating people in their own living rooms is not really the name of the game here. It's more about minimizing the losses, staying at or close to even.
Last year, St. Louis finished as the only division winner in baseball below .500 on the road. But the Cardinals compensated for that by going 21 games over .500 at home. Keep in mind, too, that they were only three games under .500 on the road, which is a lot shallower a hole than the Mets have dug themselves.
Bad things happen when the Mets leave Flushing. The offense drops dead, as their 26th-ranked, .232 away batting average indicates. They are only one of two teams in all of baseball -- poor Philadelphia is the other -- to have driven in fewer than 100 road runs.
They have given away games through a combination of managerial and player errors. Collins pulling deGrom on Friday for Sean Gilmartin, a lefty who doesn't get lefties out, after Flores took too long in checking Andrelton Simmons back to third on Pedro Ciriaco's grounder was just an example. Flores' deliberateness cost the Mets the second out of the inning and Collins, who said he would have left deGrom in had the out been made, pulled him instead.
Lefty hitter Jace Peterson slammed a two-run double off Gilmartin, and there went another gem of a pitching performance from a young arm.
There seems a certain desperation in the way Collins manages road games as opposed to home games. The hitters have 25 more strikeouts in 34 road games than in 37 home games.
It will take a considerable streak to crawl out of that 14-game hole and get near .500 in enemy territory. If it doesn't happen, the pressure to win at home will increased exponentially. No good can come of that.
The Mets might well use Monday's off day for a little attitude adjustment.
They need one. They have to find their own kindness on the road.
If their fortunes out in the great blue yonder don't turn soon, the road alone could prove the undoing of this year's playoff hopes. More to the present, if they can't figure out Milwaukee in a three-game series that starts Tuesday, they will be looking up at .500 overall come Thursday night.
Then, the heat will certainly turn up full blast.
