3 NY Mets to blame for inexcusable sweep by Braves

Mets to blame: Buck Showalter, Manager

Ottavino’s struggles in games one and two roll right into this final person to blame: Manager Buck Showalter. Because, honestly, why was Ottavino in those positions to begin with?

This year, like many times before, Ottavino has shown an inability to pitch under pressure, with immense struggles coming in high-leverage situations. His clutch rating, per FanGraphs (which is a measure of how well a player performs in high-leverage situations) is the 15th-worst among all relievers that have played for the Mets this year at -0.40.

It simply wasn’t a shock that Ottavino blew it in the second game of the series after he did it in the first.

It’s no secret that the Mets are struggling in the pen without their lockdown closer Edwin Diaz, but Ottavino clearly didn’t have it this series, and it didn’t seem like Showalter was reaching deep enough in his bag of tricks to pull out a win when the Mets desperately needed one.

Furthermore, Showalter expressed he’s “really proud,” of his team for how they competed and for scoring 10 runs against the Braves on Thursday. The problem is, the Braves still scored more.

Look, Showalter is a legacy coach that has been at it a long time. He has won plenty and certainly knows the game better than I do. It’s a 162-game season, so going nuclear after one lost series won’t do much good. I know what he’s trying to do by saying he’s proud of the team.

That said, it was a travesty of a series, and the Mets have proven in a 7-game playoff set against the Braves, they certainly have next to no shot of coming out on top. He’s also managing a team with the highest expectations given the payroll. This team needs urgency, not patience, and Showalter isn’t giving that tone to the team.

Showalter might not be here much longer.