Apr 21, 2026; New York City, New York, USA; A fan wears a bag in the eighth inning during a game between the Minnesota Twins and the New York Mets at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
QUEENS, NY — The only answer Francisco Lindor could muster to the incomprehensible question of how the Mets will turn their sinking ship around was with blunt obviousness.
“By winning,” the star shortstop said moments after his team lost its 12th consecutive game on Tuesday night, 5-3, to the Minnesota Twins.
It has taken just 23 games for the Mets’ 2026 season to reach its breaking point.
Their longest losing streak in 24 years has put them at a historical crossroads. No team in Major League Baseball history has made the postseason after losing 12 or more consecutive games — a factoid all the more puzzling when you consider the Mets were projected to win the second-most games in baseball this season.
“It’s not an easy situation, obviously,” manager Carlos Mendoza, whose job security worsens with every loss, said. “We understand where we’re at, obviously. But also knowing that, hey, there’s a lot in front of us here. But we gotta go out and do it. Obviously, the history will tell you otherwise, but you still believe in the players. You still believe in the guys that are in the room. It takes one.”
But that one has been maddeningly elusive, mostly because the offense has been invisible without Juan Soto. During this 12-game skid, New York has scored a paltry 22 runs and has looked non-competitive more often than not.
They scored just one run in Sunday’s loss to the Chicago Cubs. After Lindor’s three-run home run in the third inning on Tuesday night against the Twins, they went 1-for-21 across the final six innings.
That gave the Twins more than enough time to get to Mets ace Nolan McLean, who took a perfect game into the sixth inning before yielding a two-run home run to Byron Buxton, then the game-tying single to Luke Keaschall an inning later in the seventh.
Closer Devin Williams, who blew Sunday’s save opportunity in Chicago, then gave up two runs in the top of the ninth after loading the bases behind a pair of walks, allowing a go-ahead single to Keaschall, and bringing in another run by walking Matt Wallner.
“The guys are grinding. Nobody wants it more than us,” McLean said after his spoiled gem. “So it’s tough that we’re putting in all this work and we’re competing like crazy and we don’t get the results we want. Hopefully, if we continue to do the right things and grind out at-bats, pitch well, the law of averages will take over.”
Bless McLean’s rookie heart. The 24-year-old will likely learn all too quickly that the law of averages — or baseball logic — does not exist in Queens, because a week before the calendar even flips to May, the Mets are facing an 8.5-game hole in their division. Since June 13 last season, when they were one of the best teams in baseball, they have now gone a combined 45-72.
Only the Colorado Rockies have had a worse record since then.
“We’re all very aware of it,” Lindor said. “But at the end of the day, every day is new, and we’ve gotta come out and bring it. It’s one of those where you know it’s happening, and everybody has the urgency of winning and trying to do their best. You just gotta learn from it and move on.”
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