Two-Week Recap: Mets' Bats Go Cold as Team Falls to 10-13

By ZACH DOLEIDEN

NEW YORK – After a hot start to their 2013 campaign, the Mets have suddenly hit a wall, losing five of their last six contests while falling to 10-13 on the season. The free-fall leaves New York in fourth place in the National League East and 4.5 games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves.

On the surface, it is easy to blame the Mets’ schedule during week three of the season for a cluster of losses to the Rockies in snowy Colorado for throwing the Mets off track, and understandably so: the poor weather conditions forced two postponements and a day-night doubleheader. This undoubtedly made things tough on a pitching staff trying to retain proper rest between starts.

But when push comes to shove, the Rockies took the field and captured victories in a snow-shortened three game series (game three was postponed with no makeup date set yet).

More likely to be responsible for the struggles experienced by the Mets is the team’s recent power outage and lack of execution offensively.

Coming into week four of the season, the Mets offense ranked as the third-highest scoring team in the National League. The big swings have begun to grow quiet in the Big Apple however, as the team has scored four runs or fewer in five of their last six games.

This prompted manager Terry Collins to rearrange his lineup in a weekend series versus the Phillies in order to try and ignite a spark of some sort in the last three games of week four. Instead, the move appeared to backfire as the Metropolitans were swept and outscored 18-5 in the three games.

Part of the Mets’ offensive woes are a result of catcher John Buck falling back to Earth. After a red-hot start to his first season as a Met, Buck has since cooled off, batting just .167 in his last eight games.

It was assumed that Buck, a career .236 hitter, wasn’t going to be the one to carry the team offensively for the entire season. If nothing else, the recent lack of offense is a sign that the time has come for other players in the lineup to step up and earn their keep by contributing at the plate.

Two-Week Recap: Harvey and Buck Lead Mets to 7-4 Record

By ZACH DOLEIDEN

NEW YORK – Two weeks into the 2013 regular season, the Mets are quietly making some noise in the National League. While the team’s record of 7-4 is not as impressive as that of other teams (the 11-1 Braves certainly come to mind), New York finds itself in second place in the NL East, just 3.5 games behind those Braves and a half-game up on the reigning Division Champion Nationals.

While some may argue that the Mets have had a fairly easy schedule over the first 11 games of the year (Padres, Marlins, Phillies and Twins), the simple fact remains that the team has taken the field and competed in every game. This has resulted in the Mets taking three of their first four series, dropping their first of the campaign to the Phillies.

There are several key factors involved in the Mets’ early successes this season.

First off is the strong pitching of rookie right-hander Matt Harvey. Thrust into the number two spot in the starting rotation after Johan Santana’s season-ending surgery, Harvey (3-0) has shown he has what it takes to excel at this level. Over his first three starts, he has pitched to a 0.82 ERA while striking out 25 batters in 22 innings of work.

Harvey’s dominant performance throughout his first 12 Major League starts, dating back to last season, has even warranted comparisons to former Mets’ aces Nolan Ryan, Dwight Gooden and Tom Seaver.

The second major reason behind the early-season success of the Mets has been their propensity to hit the long ball. The team that some experts said had a noticeable lack of power within the lineup has launched at least one home run in each of its first 11 games.

And bear in mind that this is with David Wright and Ike Davis hitting just one homer between the two of them to this point.

On the contrary and almost unbelievably, the offensive catalyst thus far has been John Buck, who batted just .192 last season with the Marlins before being acquired in the trade that shipped R.A. Dickey to Toronto this offseason. Buck is batting .317 and has swatted a team-leading six home runs with 19 RBI to lead the offensive attack.

I know that Buck’s torrid pace probably will not continue the entire season. I also know that the starting rotation as well as the bullpen will have their ups and downs and experience some growing pains during the course of a 162 game season as well.

But as for right now, these first two weeks have provided Mets’ fans with something to be excited about.