Mets manager Carlos Mendoza tries to explain opening losing streak

First-year New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza had an interesting explanation for the club's struggles following Monday's 5-0 extra innings loss to the 4-0 Detroit Tigers that dropped the Mets to 0-4 on the campaign. 

"It goes both ways," Mendoza said, as shared by Manny Gómez of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. "Offensively, trying to do too much as opposed to taking walks (and) creating traffic. And that’s what happens. You chase, you expand and there’s a lot of weak contact and early outs."

The Mets suffered a three-game sweep at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers to open the campaign, and New York's bats failed to wake up on Monday evening. According to ESPN stats, the Mets began Tuesday tied for the fewest runs (eight) scored in all of MLB this season. At that same time, they were 28th in the league with a .188 team batting average. 

Per Gómez, shortstop Francisco Lindor, outfielder Brandon Nimmo and utility man Jeff McNeil went a combined 3-for-44 (.068 batting average) across the season's first four games. Lindor insisted following Monday's defeat that he and others will break out of their slumps sooner rather than later. 

"To me, it’s not about if we’re pressuring or not," Lindor said. "It’s about just staying within ourselves and not really thinking about what could happen." 

PECOTA projections shared by Baseball Prospectus ahead of Opening Day predicted that the Mets would notch roughly 83.4 wins this season. Such forecasts didn't account for the club dropping four home games to begin the campaign. As of early Tuesday afternoon, Baseball Prospectus had the Mets at just 79.7 total victories. 

"We know what they’re going to do, what they’re not going to do, how they’re going to attack us," Lindor added. "The coaches are here working extremely hard. Everybody’s working extremely hard. We just got to execute. That’s what it comes down to." 

The Mets' uninspiring offseason activities look worse and worse among fans with each early-season loss. If they don't quickly turn things around, it may be a matter of when and not if the Mets will trade first baseman Pete Alonso amid his walk year to avoid losing him via free agency this coming fall.