It is genuinely hard to script a worse stretch of baseball than what the Mets just lived through. The Chicago Cubs had just finished running through them for a 4-game series sweep, capped by Pete Crow-Armstrong delivering a clutch, go-ahead hit in the 10th inning of the finale. Clark the Bear was flying the W flag before the Mets could even finish processing the loss.
The Cubs mascot flies the W flag on the field after completing a 4-game sweep of the Mets, with PCA's extras heroics as the finishing blow.
While the Cubs were celebrating, the Mets front office was apparently making calls. Carlos Mendoza was out as manager — 206-199 over 3 seasons, according to the chyron that showed up on live pregame broadcasts. Barstool's own Frank Fleming had been calling for accountability at every level for weeks, and Eric Hubbs was openly questioning whether there even existed a breaking point for this ownership group. Turns out the breaking point was right around now. The cameras were already rolling at Citi Field for the next game when the news broke, which led to one of the more accidentally perfect moments of the baseball season.
A PIX11 reporter delivers the breaking news of Mendoza's firing live at Citi Field while Mr. Met photobombs behind him, completely unbothered.
Mr. Met, dancing behind the reporter like he just won a dance competition, is the only entity in Queens who seemed to be doing fine. The mascot's cheerful obliviousness while the 'CARLOS MENDOZA FIRED' chyron scrolled underneath is the kind of thing that could only happen to the Mets. Frank was not amused — he went on the record saying the SNY director should have cleared the mascot from the shot. Which, fair. But it didn't matter, because the Phillies were about to make everyone forget the mascot situation entirely.
Philadelphia wasted no time. With Zack Wheeler on the mound and the new-manager-energy barely settled, Phillies center fielder Derek Hill went and robbed Juan Soto of a home run in the 1st inning. Soto, with an OPS sitting close to .970 on the season, hit one deep — and Hill got there anyway. The scoreboard read PHI 1, NYM 0, and the Mets fanbase had not even emotionally processed the Mendoza news yet.
Derek Hill tracks down a deep drive at the Citi Field warning track to rob Juan Soto of a home run, with the Phillies already leading 1-0 in the first.
Clem summed it up cleanly: 'When it rains, it Mets.' That pun is doing serious emotional lifting right now. Andy Green is inheriting this roster, this clubhouse, this fanbase, and apparently this particular flavor of luck — where your manager gets fired and the very next thing that happens is a star outfielder gets robbed in the 1st inning of the next game. Frank Fleming is already filming reaction videos from his memorabilia room. Nobody is okay. The Mets are not okay. And the season has a lot of innings left.