NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Luke Weaver thinks losing is weighing on the Mets and New York is being suffocated by its poor play.
Weaver gave up a go-ahead, two-run homer to CJ Abrams in the eighth inning that lifted the Washington Nationals to a 5-4 win Thursday and dealt the Mets
鈥淎t the end of the day, this pursuit of perfection is just an ultimate pressurized failure mindset,鈥� Weaver said softly during a lengthy postgame introspection. 鈥淓verybody wants to be the hero because we care and we want to win really, really bad, and I just don鈥檛 think success lives in that realm. It just truly doesn鈥檛 and I think the freedom of which we play day to day is just kind of being suffocated a little bit.鈥�
New York is a major league-worst 10-21. The team’s .323 winning percentage through April is its fourth-lowest behind bad starts in 1962 (3-13), 1964 (2-10) and 1981 (4-10).
After overcoming a 3-0 deficit to take a 4-3 lead on MJ Melendez鈥檚 three-run homer in the third and Mark Vientos鈥� RBI double in the sixth, the Mets lost a game in which they were ahead for the 10th time this year.
Luis Garc铆a Jr. singled on the first pitch of the eighth from Weaver, and Daylen Lile beat a relay throw to avoid a double play. Abrams drove a hanging changeup 403 feet to right-center.
鈥淚 want to do my job. It鈥檚 that simple. There鈥檚 moments that feel really close, and then there鈥檚 just one 鈥� mistakes that magnify our situation,鈥� Weaver said. 鈥淎nd, so, of course I sit there and feel the weight of the world, and feel like I let the team down. But at the end of the day, I do feel like I’m in a good spot. It’s just, we sit there and we just tell you guys, 鈥業t鈥檒l come. This is the game. This is the law of averages’ and all these things, but at the end of the day those words just don鈥檛 hold the same weight when you continue to go (lose) day after day.鈥�
Much was expected from the Mets, whose offseason makeover saw , and depart, and , and arrive. Thus far, it’s fizzled.
New York started the season with the major leagues’ highest payroll at $358.4 million. A big league-best 45-23 at the start of play on June 13 last year, the Mets are 48-76 since.
They are 27th among the 30 teams with a .227 batting average, 29th with 106 runs and 30th with a .631 OPS.
鈥淭ypically we don鈥檛 see an entire kind of collective group at the same time not playing their best brand of baseball,鈥� Weaver said.
New York’s lone position players batting above .240 are $765 million slugger Juan Soto, whose 15-game absence because of a right calf injury coincided with a 12-game losing streak, and MJ Melendez, who opened the season in the minors but has batted third behind Soto the last two games.
One-third of the Mets鈥� opening-day lineup is on the injured list. Center fielder Luis Robert Jr. (lumbar spine disk herniation) joined shortstop Francisco Lindor (left calf) and first baseman/designated hitter Jorge Polanco (left Achilles, right wrist) on the shelf Thursday.
Weaver and Williams, imported from the crosstown New York Yankees by president of baseball operations David Stearns to rebuild the back of the bullpen, have combined for a 6.86 ERA and three blown saves.
Mets starters are averaging barely five innings per outing. Members of the rotation other than Clay Holmes and rookie Nolan McLean have a 6.04 ERA.
鈥淚t just feels like there鈥檚 a little bit of a culture that鈥檚 just kind of adapted to it unintentionally,鈥� Weaver said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just how winning and losing goes. When you win, you feel like you鈥檙e on top of the world. When you鈥檙e losing, everybody wants to talk about the failures and the outcomes. And the magnification just becomes immense.
鈥淪leep is lost. The mind wanders and you just kind of get into a fixation that you don鈥檛 really need to be in.鈥�
The Mets are 8 1/2 games out of the NL鈥檚 final playoff spot and 11 1/2 games back of the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves. Only two teams 鈥� the 1914 Boston Braves and the 1981 Kansas City Royals 鈥� have made the playoffs after starting 10-21 or worse 鈥� and the Royals did so by winning the AL West second half crown in the split strike season.
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard for all of us,鈥� embattled manager Carlos Mendoza said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e in this together. It鈥檚 not easy. But we鈥檝e got to keep going. There鈥檚 no other choices here. We have a responsibility and we have to turn this thing around.鈥�
Perhaps by going all the way back to their first days as baseball players.
鈥淚t鈥檚 simplifying the process and maybe doing less,鈥� Weaver said. 鈥淢aybe it鈥檚 less reps. Maybe it鈥檚 more about just enjoying why you do this for a living and trying to just find your inner kid and the joy of why you play the game and not trying to do it for other people.鈥�
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