TORONTO -- For those wondering how things are going for the 2026 Mets: In less than three hours on Monday, Juan Soto and A.J. Ewing misplayed a ball into an inside-the-park home run; Francisco Lindor chastised himself on the field after committing a costly fielding error; Ronny Mauricio accidentally struck a teammate with a bat; and the Mets lost for the third time in four games since firing their manager.
All that and more took place at Rogers Centre, where the Mets dropped a 2-1 game to the Blue Jays to continue their slide down the National League standings.
The most impactful play of the night occurred in the bottom of the first inning, when George Springer lofted a routine leadoff base hit to left. Attempting to play it on a hop, Soto instead watched the ball skip past his glove and all the way to the warning track, where Ewing subsequently bobbled it. Springer raced home with a Little League home run -- officially ruled a triple and an error on Ewing -- to give the Jays a lead they would never relinquish.
“It just took a weird hop on me and bounced a little different,” Soto said, noting that Rogers Centre’s artificial turf played a role in his gaffe. “When you have an outfield like that, that it bounces a lot, you have to be aware. You can give up extra-base hits really easy.”
Things didn’t exactly improve from that point. Five innings later, Lindor booted a routine grounder, costing Sean Manaea the final out of the sixth. Manaea walked the next batter, bringing interim manager Andy Green out of the dugout to make a pitching change. When he did, an emotional Lindor began shouting “No!” from his position at shortstop, livid with himself for committing his second error in his past four games -- both of them affecting Manaea.
After the error, Manaea told Lindor that he would pick up his shortstop, but he proved unable to do so.
“I was just extremely upset, because Sean has worked his ass off all year,” Lindor said. “For me not to help him finish the play, it’s upsetting. He freaking works so hard, he grinds it, and he had a chance at throwing six innings today, and I didn’t help him. Last game, last outing, I made an error on him, and he added another 15 more pitches. And then the same [crap] today. I was just upset that I didn’t help him get six innings.”
Though Austin Warren wound up escaping what became a bases-loaded jam that inning, the Mets -- despite a late Lindor homer -- could not capitalize, instead losing for the third time in four games since firing Carlos Mendoza. It was another night filled with issues for the Mets, who even made a gaffe outside the foul lines when Mauricio struck Francisco Alvarez in the arm with a practice swing from the on-deck circle. (Alvarez, despite a fair amount of pain, wound up being fine.)
Such is the state of the 2026 Mets: they don’t merely lose games, they do so with a certain amount of verve. In addition to committing a crucial misplay in left field, for example, Soto had to answer for comments made this week by former hitting coach Eric Chavez, who said on his podcast that Soto frequently spent time during games last year on a couch near the batting cage, rather than on the dugout bench with his teammates.
Asked about Chavez’s podcast, Soto said he heard it but didn’t have any comment. Consider it just another miniature crisis in a season full of distractions, both big and small.
On Tuesday, at least, much of the negative energy could have been wiped away had the Mets simply found a big hit when needed. Instead, they left seven men on base, including four in the final two innings. In the eighth, Bo Bichette, who had grown emotional pregame when asked about his seven-year tenure in Toronto, came to the plate with two men on base in a one-run game. He grounded out weakly on the first pitch he saw, putting an abrupt end to a promising rally.
“I do think we squared up a number of balls today,” Green said. “Very few things fell for us. But when we had an opportunity to get a big hit, there was a punchout too often for us tonight.”