NEW YORK — The Mets must pray Marcus Stroman's left hip — which became sore and forced his departure in the second inning — is fine because they can't afford to lose a starting pitcher, especially one of his caliber.
Does that seem unnecessarily dramatic?
If so, then consider this: The Mets on Tuesday lost to the Braves, 3-0. The Mets (37-31), who have now lost six of their last eight games, haven't scored in 17 innings — which follows a 21-inning scoreless streak from last week.
Their pitching is greatly outperforming their hitting right now, as has been the case for most of the season. They need every last arm they have, especially because injuries to Joey Lucchesi (Tommy John surgery), Carlos Carrasco (hamstring strain), Jordan Yamamoto (right shoulder soreness) and Robert Gsellman (torn lat) have depleted their starting pitching depth.
In its latest game, New York mustered only two hits — one of which came from pinch-hitting pitcher Jerad Eickhoff, who hit a slow roller down the third-base line for an infield single. The Mets didn't collect another hit until James McCann doubled with two outs in the ninth.
The Mets entered their latest contest ranked 29th out of 30 teams with 3.67 runs per game. They've now scored only 13 runs in their last seven games, and five of those came in one game because of one player: Francisco Lindor, who drove in all five of them.
The Mets on Tuesday lost because of Dansby Swanson's three-run home run in the third inning off right-hander Yennsy Diaz — who pitched well otherwise after entering on short notice due to Stroman's unforeseen injury.
Those three runs, even if they scored early, proved too much for this offense to overcome.
And really, that's been a theme for the Mets this season. For as dominant as their pitching has been, they've been inconsistent offensively. You can excuse some of it (when the team was missing five of eight starting position players) but other parts are inexcusable (when a fully healthy lineup struggled for the first month-plus of the season before the injuries hit).
Entering Tuesday, the Mets' starting rotation owned a 2.63 ERA this season, including a 1.57 ERA over the previous 14 games. The Mets have received a superhuman season from Jacob deGrom, an elite one from Stroman and an unexpectedly dominant one from Taijuan Walker. The bullpen has consistently pitched well behind the rotation, too.
All of that matters less if the offense is held in check night after night, as has been the case recently.
Just take this loss, for example. The Mets once again wasted what became a great pitching performance. Diaz gave up the three-run homer, but filled in nicely. Drew Smith, Aaron Loup and Trevor May then combined to hold Atlanta scoreless and give the Mets a chance to come back.
The Makeshift Mets deserve credit. Kevin Pillar, Jonathan Villar, Billy McKinney and many others helped keep this team in a good spot as it experienced a ridiculous stretch of injures. But you're now seeing why talent matters and why this is relatively unsustainable.
One example of the current state of the roster: Manager Luis Rojas on Tuesday pinch-hit two pitchers: David Peterson (third inning) and Eickhoff (fifth).
The Mets need their best bats, and soon. They just got Jeff McNeil back and Michael Conforto is expected to be activated prior to Wednesday's game against the Braves. Brandon Nimmo doesn't appear too far off, and J.D. Davis is expected to begin a rehab assignment in the next week or two.
