The Mets had better put their hard hats on if they want to listen to Mike Francesa’s latest podcast.
The big guy hammered the Amazins after they were swept by the Braves in Atlanta — capped by Thursday’s meltdown loss in extra innings — and left “bloodied on the side of the road on the way to Pittsburgh.”
“The Braves are so significantly better than the Mets — in the lineup, in the starting pitching, in the bullpen — that it’s scary,” the WFAN legend said on his BetRivers pod. “It’s scary when you at the team, what the Met payroll is and what they put the money in. The Mets have some real serious issues and are going to need to be bailed out in certain areas. … The Mets are a franchise that is spinning out of control.”
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Francesa went to town on the Amazins’ myriad issues, from inconsistent and unproductive bats, struggling starting pitching, poor relief pitching — “The bullpen stinks. This series showed it.” — and Pete Alonso’s trash talk. “Pete’s hit enough home runs that he doesn’t have to talk,” Francesa said, adding that Alonso’s injury is “devastating to that team.”
The Mets are 30-33. They are now nine games back of the NL East leading-Braves in the loss column and only three games ahead of the last-place Nationals. They are also four games back in the loss column from a wild card spot. There has been speculation manager Buck Showalter’s job could be in jeopardy given the Mets’ massive payroll and high expectations. But Francesa is not blaming him.
“This is not about the manager,” he said. “It’s not like Buck doesn’t know what strings to pull. He does. He just doesn’t have a whole lot of strings to pull right now.”
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James Kratch can be reached at james.kratch@xlmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @jameskratch.
