The Mets weren’t saying what went on behind the closed clubhouse doors after Thursday’s 9-0 loss to the last-place Arizona Diamondbacks at Citi Field. It was a meeting, that much is known. As far as the specific content of that meeting, players were vague, yet were seemingly unbothered and relaxed when media members finally were allowed past the clubhouse gates after a longer-than-usual postgame waiting period.
“Win, lose or draw, something was going to be said,” said Curtis Granderson, who had a pinch-hit at-bat in the loss. “It didn’t necessarily need to be said. After every game, we always talk, one way or the other.”
Kelly Johnson said he did not speak in the meeting but could feel it coming on.
“You get swept by a team at home and don’t really show much in terms of getting runs and getting the job done,” he said. “Sometimes you have to have somebody say something. It doesn’t always get you off on a winning streak, but it brings a message to each guy in case somebody is not doing everything that they can.”
Thursday’s loss dropped the Mets to 10-16 since the All-Star break, 3-12 in their last 15 games at home and — perhaps most telling of all — .500 on the season for the first time since April 20.
“We had plenty of guys who wanted a say, had their say and had a lot of great things to say,” Johnson added. “That’s just part of being a team in a competitive sport.”
The meeting does not indicate any sort of rift among the team, Johnson said. “The chemistry in this locker room is as good as any,” he said.
Noah Syndergaard, Thursday’s starting pitcher, called the meeting “optimistic’’ and added, “It allowed us to hit the refresh button.”
That “refresh’’ will begin Friday night at home against the San Diego Padres (49-65), a team not much better than the Diamondbacks (48-66). The Padres are 16 games behind the San Francisco Giants in the National League West standings — certainly not a team with a lot of hope.
What San Diego does have is speed. Entering play Thursday night, the Padres ranked third in the National League in steals with 99. Arizona, which ranked fourth with 85, ran wild against the Mets this week. Their 13 stolen bases in the three-game set were the most the Mets have allowed in a three-game series in team history.
Still, the Mets are only three games out of the second wild- card spot.
“It’s baseball,” catcher Rene Rivera said. “It’s a long season. You want to be the best you can be for 162 games and that’s not going to happen. Nobody can be successful for 162 games. Every team has ups and downs. We just have hit our down. But we’re still in the race. We’re only a couple games out of the wild card. We can turn this around.’’
Granderson agreed.
“There’s still a lot of great things going on with this team,” he said. “We still have the potential to do a lot of amazing things.”
..... - Newsday