How quickly things change.
The last time the Mets were home they capped off their best stretch of the season with a thrilling come-from-behind win to lock up the first-half of the Subway Series.
A struggling offense showed some much-needed signs of life, signaling perhaps that they were finally ready to make a dent in the gapping hole they put themselves in.
However, a much different club returned to Citi Field on Monday.
With Juan Soto sidelined again with an illness those bats have quickly returned to their sluggish form, as they dropped their fourth consecutive game with a 7-2 loss to the Reds.
Unlike their sweep at the hands of the Marlins to begin the week, they were able to generate some traffic this afternoon, but that still didn’t lead to runs, as they finished 0-for-6 as a team with RISP.
Bumped up to the cleanup spot, Marcus Semien broke a three-game homerless drought with a solo shot in the sixth, that was just one of three extra base-hits on the afternoon.
As a result, New York finished with two or less runs for the fifth straight game.
“We can sit here and make excuses with some of the guys we’re missing, but we have big-league hitters here and they are struggling,” Carlos Mendoza said.
“We’re having a hard time putting rallies together, and the biggest thing is our inability to drive the ball out of the park — look at a night like tonight, we had nine hits but two runs — it’s hard to score three or four by just singles, you gotta be able to drive the ball out of the ballpark.”
Just like that, any signs of May momentum have quickly been swept away.
With losses in six of their last seven games, the Mets are now back to 10 games under .500 and remain in the basement of the NL East at the 1/3 mark of the season.
“It sucks,” Mendoza said. “I’ve been saying it, it’s not early anymore — we’re not putting ourselves in a good position obviously, we gotta do out and do it.”