WASHINGTON -- Upon swinging over the final pitch of the Mets’ 9-3 loss to the Nationals at Nationals Park on Thursday, Juan Soto grimaced, took a few steps backward and spent a long moment staring into space. He turned and paused for another beat before slowly walking back to the visitors’ dugout, down the steps and into a silent New York clubhouse.
This was supposed to be a game the Mets would win. This was supposed to be a series the Mets would win. Following a miserable start to August, New York had finally established a kernel of momentum, winning three games in a row heading into Wednesday’s play. The Mets seemed primed, at long last, to reestablish themselves as a surefire playoff team capable of ruining anyone’s October.
Instead, the Mets dropped their next two games to the last-place Nationals. Their starting pitchers, Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea, allowed nine runs (eight earned) over 9 2/3 innings. Their offense mustered two hits -- an infield single and an opposite-field dribbler -- in eight innings against Major League Baseball’s bottom-ranked bullpen.
The Mets (67-60) now cling to the National League’s final Wild Card spot by a half-game over the Reds (67-61). They could fall outside the playoff bubble completely this weekend.
“The issue is we’re losing games,” Soto said. “That is all.”
“We’ve just got to be better,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Bottom line.”
Thursday’s loss followed a familiar script. The Mets went ahead on the first batter of the game, when Francisco Lindor hit his franchise-record eighth leadoff homer of the season. They led, 3-0, midway through the fourth. Then Manaea, who had struck out seven of the first 11 batters he faced, lost the feel for his sweeper. He began struggling to place his fastball where he wanted. Keen to take advantage, the Nationals pushed Manaea out of the game with two outs in the fifth. One batter later, Riley Adams hit a go-ahead two-run single off Tyler Rogers.
From there, the Mets’ offense shut down completely. Fourteen of their final 16 batters were retired, while the Nationals padded their lead with four in the eighth off reliever Ryne Stanek.
At that point, a sizable contingent of Mets fans in attendance began booing.
“It’s no secret we’re not playing very good baseball right now, so we need to figure something out,” veteran Jeff McNeil said. “We’re still right there. We’ve got some big games coming up. There’s no reason why we can’t separate ourselves and be in a better spot.”
“I know everybody’s doing everything they can,” added Manaea.
With 35 games remaining, the Mets are still very much in control of their own destiny. But their path won’t be easy. This weekend, they will head to Atlanta for three games against a struggling Braves team that still managed to take a series off them earlier this month. Next week, the Mets will host the first-place Phillies at Citi Field. Then, in early September, they’ll embark on a potentially season-defining road trip: three against the American League Central-leading Tigers, three against the very Reds team that’s chasing them and four more vs. the Phillies.
Asked if he feels like time is starting to run out, Soto replied: “I mean, it ain’t late. But it ain’t early, either.”
This was not how the 2025 season was supposed to go for New York, a team that made it within two wins of the pennant last year. Over the offseason, the Mets reloaded with Soto and others, racking up a payroll north of $330 million in an attempt to establish themselves as NL bullies.
“Baseball’s hard to explain sometimes,” McNeil said. “I just feel like we’re not clicking. We haven’t gotten that momentum that we need.”
In the estimation of McNeil and others, the Mets still can be that team. There’s still enough time for them to fix what’s broken. MLB’s modern postseason format is forgiving to clubs like New York, which could sneak into the playoffs with a mid-80s win total. And once in October, anything can happen.
But these Mets continue to prompt questions as to how good they actually are. The Trade Deadline has come and gone. The time for easy fixes has passed. If the Mets want to make something of their season, they’ll need their most important changes to come from within.
“We’ve seen it from this group,” Mendoza said. “It starts right there. We don’t have much time left, so we’ve got to play better.”