{"id":678067,"date":"2026-04-18T02:19:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T02:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678067\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T02:19:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T02:19:24","slug":"mlb-history-suggests-mets-playoff-hopes-are-already-in-jeopardy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678067\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB History Suggests Mets Playoff Hopes Are Already in Jeopardy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Hours after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/topic\/sports-mlb-mets\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Mets<\/a> president of baseball operations David Stearns\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/mets-president-concerns-manager-carlos-mendoza-offense-mlb-11847598\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">backed <\/a>manager Carlos Mendoza, the team fell to 7-13 with a 12-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs in front of 34,282 fans at Wrigley Field on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">More News: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/mets-president-concerns-manager-carlos-mendoza-offense-mlb-11847598\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mets President Addresses Concerns With Manager Carlos Mendoza, Offense<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Stearns argued that the problem with the Mets&#8217; losing streak, which stood at eight games before Friday, didn&#8217;t have anything to do with Mendoza, but was a result of the offense&#8217;s bats being cold this spring. He suggested players might be trying too hard to jumpstart the offense, and believes better days are ahead for New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">&#8220;Urgency is not the problem here,&#8221; Stearns said. &#8220;There&#8217;s plenty of urgency. There&#8217;s plenty of want, and sometimes that can lead to things like a higher chase rate, unfortunately&#8230; &#8220;We haven&#8217;t hit. When you don&#8217;t hit, you can look stagnant. I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;re stagnant, I think we&#8217;re playing hard.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img id=\"11847995\" alt=\"Francisco Lindor #12 of the New York Mets\" caption=\"LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 15: Francisco Lindor #12 of the New York Mets looks on from the dugout during the fourth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on April 15, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. All players are wearing the number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. (Photo by Luke Hales\/Getty Images)\" credit=\"\" sourcealt=\"\" sources=\"[]\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"5913\" height=\"3942\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent;aspect-ratio:inherit;object-fit:cover\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2271544256.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">More News<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/angels-mike-trout-mlb-history-yankees-expense-11841902\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">:<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/angels-mike-trout-mlb-history-yankees-expense-11841902\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Angels\u2019 Mike Trout Makes MLB History at Yankee\u2019s Expense<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Friday&#8217;s loss to the Cubs was the ninth defeat in a row for the Mets. New York, which holds the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/topic\/sports-mlb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MLB<\/a>&#8216;s second-highest payroll at $381 million, is now 5.5 games back from the Atlanta Braves for first place in the National League East.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">It might actually be time for the Mets to panic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Per Anthony Di Como of MLB.com, only nine teams in the history of the MLB have lost nine consecutive games and still made the postseason. Only the 1953 New York Yankees reversed course to win a World Series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">&#8220;Only nine teams in Major League history have lost nine consecutive games and still made the playoffs, though five of those instances have occurred since 2010,&#8221; DiComo posted on X. &#8220;Four of those nine went on to win the pennant. Only one &#8212; the 1953 Yankees &#8212; won the World Series.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Saturday&#8217;s matchup against the Cubs could be even more telling. DiComo <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AnthonyDiComo\/status\/2045255402007486681\" rel=\"nofollow\">noted<\/a> only four MLB teams have lost 10 games in a row and made the playoffs and no teams have lost 10 games and won a World Series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">The Mets payroll would suggest the team has the firepower to overcome the odds to make the playoffs. In April, there is still plenty of time for New York to go on a run and win the NL East. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">But things have to change fast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">For more on the Mets and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/sports\/mlb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MLB <\/a>head to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/sports\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Newsweek Sports.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hours after New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns\u00a0backed manager Carlos Mendoza, the team fell to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,2328,2304,4,2305,2303,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-678067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","10":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-playoffs","13":"tag-mlb-postseason","14":"tag-new-york-mets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116423318978103774","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}