Mets fall below .500 with series loss vs. Rockies as the slump continues despite a soft schedule

It’s early, but New York Mets owner Steve Cohen isn’t getting what he paid for. The most expensive team in baseball history lost its 11th time in its last 14 games Sunday afternoon, this time blown out at home by the Colorado Rockies (COL 13, NY 6). The Mets are 17-18 on the season and seven games out in the NL East.

Cohen’s motivational tweet on Sunday did not have the intended effect, it seems.

But to be fair, it was a spectacular weather day in New York. Cohen was right on that part.

The scary part? The Mets do this against what should have been a soft part of the schedule. They have lost four series in a row, including two of three against the Washington Nationals, swept by the Detroit Tigers and two of three against the Rockies. An opportunity to boost the earnings total has been missed in the past two weeks.

Although the Mets gave up 13 runs on Sunday, the offense was the biggest culprit during this 3-11 stretch. They have scored a total of 46 points in their last 14 games, or 3.29 per game. Seven times in those 14 games, they scored no more than two runs. As a team, the Mets are hitting .223/.279/.359 over the past two weeks. It’s just not going to work.

The Mets called top prospects Francisco Álvarez and Brett Baty last month, so they’ve already played those cards. Mark Vientos hits .330/.414/.661 with nine home runs in Triple-A, so the Mets could promote him, though getting him into the lineup requires some creativity with the infield already full. It’s possible. Position is not a good excuse.

Really, the best the Mets can do to fix a disappointing offense is to be patient and wait for veterans like Francisco Lindor and Starling Marte — they’re far from the only culprits, I’ll name just two players — to start playing on the back of their baseball cards. Impact trades are hard to make at this time of year.

Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander returned earlier this week and the two future Hall of Famers should give the rotation a nice shot in the arm. Other than that, what you see is what you get from the Mets. They are better than their 17-18 record and much better than 3-11 in their last 14 games. We just haven’t seen that team yet.