{"id":696073,"date":"2026-05-11T12:03:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T12:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/696073\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T12:03:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T12:03:16","slug":"the-good-bad-and-ugly-of-the-mets-5-4-road-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/696073\/","title":{"rendered":"The good, bad and ugly of the Mets’ 5-4 road trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the Mets<\/a> were going to gain ground in the standings, their most recent road trip through Anaheim, Colorado and Arizona was their best chance. They played three teams with sub-.500 records, won series against the Angels and Rockies, and dropped one against the Diamondbacks, losing 5-1 in the series finale on Sunday at Chase Field.<\/p>\n

Overall, the Mets went 5-4 on the trip to move to 15-25 after 40 games. They showed some improvements, but not enough to convince anyone that this is a winning team. The Subway Series could become a bloodbath next week.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what happened on the road, and what\u2019s next for the Mets as they finally return home after nine games, three cities and one snow-out.<\/p>\n

THE GOOD<\/p>\n

The bats are coming alive lower in the order, helping the Mets turn over the lineup and as a result, creating scoring opportunities for Juan Soto.<\/p>\n

Carson Benge had a solid trip. The rookie right fielder broke up Eduardo Rodriguez\u2019s no-hit bid Sunday in Phoenix in the top of the sixth, scoring the Mets\u2019 only run when Luis Torrens drove him home on a double. He went 7-for-26 in nine games, with three doubles, a home run, five RBI, four walks and six strikeouts.<\/p>\n

While a .269 average isn\u2019t exactly a monster trip, the Mets needed him to start hitting. The lineup has been decimated by injuries, and it\u2019s still not producing consistently. What the Mets need is traffic on the basepaths, and Benge has helped provide it. His defense hasn\u2019t been bad either, leading to Gary Cohen\u2019s infamous \u201cpulchritudinous\u201d call in Anaheim.<\/p>\n

Marcus Semien is starting to come around at the plate as well, Tyrone Taylor had a few hits off the bench and as a starter, and Mark Vientos drove in eight runs in nine games. Soto wasn\u2019t able to do much in Phoenix on Sunday, but the leadoff spot experiment is one that he\u2019s embraced.<\/p>\n

In terms of pitching, rookie right-hander Christian Scott pitched to a 2.79 ERA in two starts, limiting the Rockies to only one run in his first career start at Coors Field, the most notorious offensive park in baseball.<\/p>\n

THE BAD<\/p>\n

Soto isn\u2019t cashing in on those opportunities, and neither is Bichette behind him. The offense sputtered again in the final four games of the road trip, with the Mets scoring only seven runs in four games against the Rockies and Diamondbacks.<\/p>\n

After a few days of getting the ball in the air and hitting line drives and home runs in Colorado, the Mets reverted to their ground-ball ways. That shouldn\u2019t happen in Denver, and despite the club\u2019s insistence that the hitting coaches aren\u2019t the problem, at some point, you have to wonder if it\u2019s something with the club\u2019s overall hitting philosophies and teachings.<\/p>\n

The Mets lost Ronny Mauricio to a fractured thumb in Anaheim, decimating the once-robust infield depth. Bo Bichette and Brett Baty have been playing well at their natural positions, shortstop and third base, but the Mets don\u2019t want Bichette to get out of sorts at third. Reserve infielders Vidal Brujan and Andy Iba\u00f1ez aren\u2019t the answers.<\/p>\n

The bullpen isn\u2019t constructed in a way that gives the Mets a chance to hold leads nightly, and left-hander A.J. Minter was pulled off his minor league assignment last week, which resets his clock once again. He\u2019ll get another 30 days once the Mets send him on a minor league assignment.<\/p>\n

A lot can change before the trade deadline, but only minimal changes can be made to the roster until then. Jorge Polanco doesn\u2019t appear to be close to a rehab assignment, and Francisco Lindor and Luis Robert Jr. still aren\u2019t doing any baseball activities. This is what the Mets have to work with, and it hasn\u2019t been working well.<\/p>\n

THE UGLY<\/p>\n

The Mets continue to make sloppy mistakes. There were missed challenges in Anaheim, and at one point during that series against the Angels, the entire infield appeared to forget how many outs there were.<\/p>\n

Errors undid the Mets on Sunday in the desert as well. Ibanez and Peterson made errors, with Iba\u00f1ez making one on a routine play at third base. Errors aren\u2019t often a great indicator of the overall defense, but routine plays have to be made. Most of the season, they\u2019ve been middle-of-the-pack in terms of defensive rankings, but they\u2019ve slipped down much further in recent weeks. A -4 Outs Above Average is 22nd in baseball.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0unexcusable\u00a0for a team that publicly stated \u201crun prevention\u201d was the offseason priority so many times that it practically became a running joke.<\/p>\n

WHAT\u2019S NEXT<\/p>\n

The Detroit Tigers come to town for a three-game series beginning Tuesday. A team with its own problems, the Mets will catch a break without having to contend with ace Tarik Skubal, who is on the IL after having a debridement procedure on his pitching elbow. Friday night at Citi Field, the first half of the Subway Series begins. It could very well end up as a matchup between baseball\u2019s best and worst teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the Mets were going to gain ground in the standings, their most recent road trip through Anaheim,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,1443,134,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,10010],"class_list":{"0":"post-696073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-carlos-mendoza","10":"tag-juan-soto","11":"tag-mets","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-mets","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkmets","17":"tag-road-trip"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116555848347611299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696073","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=696073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}