NEW YORK — The good news for the New York Mets is they’ve lost only one game on their division lead over the last 10 days. The bad news is that’s the good news.
The Mets continued eroding the margin for error they built for themselves in April by dropping another 1-0 game to the Washington Nationals at Citi Field on Sunday, It was the second straight 1-0 loss for the Mets against the Nationals and New York’s seventh loss in its last 10 games since a team record-tying 11-game winning streak from April 12-23.
Despite the skid, the Mets still lead the NL East by 3 1/2 games over the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves. Their lead was 4 1/2 games on April 23.
“We’re fine,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “We have a 3 1/2-game lead.”
Still, the lead certainly seems more precarious given the fast-charging nature of the Nationals — fourth-place Washington cut its deficit in half, from eight games to four games, over the last six days — and with the way the Mets have seemingly forgot how to hit.
New York scored three runs or more 10 times during its winning streak but has scored three runs or less seven times in the last 10 games. Of the 26 hits the Mets had against the Nationals, 19 were singles.
The Mets left 25 runners on base in the four-game series, including two in scoring position in the eighth on Sunday, when first baseman Lucas Duda and left fielder Michael Cuddyer struck out to end the only serious threat of the game.
“We ran into two guys the last two days (left-hander Gio Gonzalez on Saturday and right-hander Doug Fister on Sunday) that pitched really, really well, kept the balls off the barrel, and we didn’t help ourselves,” Cuddyer said. “We weren’t able to get the big hit. Last week we’re getting the big hit. That’s just baseball.”
Perhaps an uncommonly restful week ahead will help revive the Mets, who are off Monday and Thursday — before and after a two-game series against Baltimore. New York had just two off-days in the season’s first four weeks.
“The off-day is coming at a good time,” Cuddyer said. “Everybody can get recharged, refreshed.”
