Burning sage, Lindor's HR not enough as Mets' skid hits 12

NEW YORK -- About three hours before first pitch on Tuesday, Mets owner Steve Cohen emerged into the Mets’ dugout for an impromptu chat about his team. Cohen described himself as “calm,” but also “concerned” and “focused.” He suggested that he is not the type to panic, even in the face of the franchise’s longest losing streak in more than two decades.

That was similar to the tone Cohen struck in sending a series of reassuring texts to manager Carlos Mendoza, whose job status came under scrutiny as the Mets lost game after game after game after game -- now 12 in a row for those counting, which seems to be just about everyone.

As the losses have piled up, the baseball industry has collectively rubbernecked to see just what is happening over in Flushing. Things grew bad enough that before Tuesday’s game, SNY field reporter Steve Gelbs wore a garlic necklace and burned sage outside Citi Field.

None of it worked. Despite Francisco Lindor’s three-run homer and five perfect innings from Nolan McLean, the Mets dropped a 5-3 game to the Twins on a series of late rallies. They have lost a dozen straight games, their longest streak since 2002, tied for the sixth longest in franchise history and five shy of the franchise-record 17-game losing streak they endured in their inaugural 1962 season.

Shortly after New York’s loss on Tuesday, the Royals won a game, giving the Mets sole possession of the worst record in Major League Baseball at 7-16.

“It’s tough, man,” said closer Devin Williams, who has allowed seven earned runs over his last three outings. “I’ve never been a part of something like this.”

Each night, the Mets are finding different ways to lose. After McLean opened Tuesday’s game with five perfect innings and Lindor homered to ply the Mets with plenty of momentum, Minnesota tied things on a Luke Keaschall RBI single off McLean in the seventh. Two innings later, the Twins rallied against Williams on two walks and a sacrifice bunt attempt that Mark Vientos threw to third base, allowing all three runners to reach their bases safely. The next batter, Keaschall, punched a go-ahead single into left, before Williams walked in a run to amplify the damage.

Seldom-used reliever Austin Warren entered after that, eliciting sarcastic cheers from the Citi Field crowd as he peppered the strike zone. By the time Warren had finished striking out three batters in succession, fans were serenading him with “M-V-P” chants.

The boos returned a short time later, when the Mets went down on 12 pitches in the ninth to lose their 12th in a row.

"It sucks. It sucks,” Mendoza said. “You’re feeling good, especially with the way the game was developing there. You watch Nolan kind of dominate pretty much a whole lineup there for the first five innings. … Especially how Lindor sets the tone there with a three-run homer, you feel like you’re getting some momentum. But then after that, we couldn’t do anything else.”

Before the game, players arrived at Citi Field for the start of a nine-game homestand to find copies of "The Coffee Bean" placed at their lockers. A self-help tome, the book encourages readers to be like a coffee bean, which, instead of allowing adverse conditions to affect it negatively, manages to change boiling water into something better.

So far, despite their best and varied efforts, the Mets have not altered their environment for the better.

"Nobody’s feeling it more than us players,” McLean said. “Guys are showing up early, getting the work in, and everybody’s working their butts off. So it stinks to go out there and not be able to get it done.”

The good news for the Mets -- and it's all relative at this point -- is that Juan Soto is due back from the injured list on Wednesday. Although Mendoza cautioned against viewing Soto as a savior, the reality is he is their best player and represents their best chance to turn things around ...

… if turning things around is even possible at this point. Even with the era of expanded playoffs, no team has lost 12 consecutive games and still qualified for the postseason. Asked how the Mets can avoid that fate late Tuesday night, Lindor replied simply: “By winning.”

"We just need to get the one win out of the way and I think everything will take care of itself,” Williams added. “But it’s obviously proving pretty difficult right now.”