First, the bad news: The Mets dropped their fifth straight game Sunday, as they were swept by the A’s, finished off by a 1-0 defeat.
Now, for more bad news: As if the ugly stretch at home wasn’t enough, the Mets open a three-game series against the two-time defending champion Dodgers in Los Angeles on Monday.
On the bright side, at least they won’t get booed for a while, as they were at the end of Sunday’s snoozefest, their second shutout loss in the last three games, as the offense struggles without the injured Juan Soto.
“I’ve been part of big expectations and slower starts offensively,’’ Bo Bichette said. “Nobody likes losing. That’s the best I can put it. But if we’ve got our heads down or worry too much about this, we’ve got bigger issues.”
This latest defeat, which dropped them to 7-9 and finished a homestand in which they lost five of six, came with Freddy Peralta on the mound, and the right-hander was hardly at fault this time around.
Peralta held the A’s to one run over six innings, allowing just a solo homer to Nick Kurtz in the third inning.
Again, the culprit was the nonexistent Mets offense, which has been dormant for nearly the entire losing streak.
Right-hander Aaron Civale retired 13 straight following Jared Young’s two-out single in the first.
After the Mets wasted that scoring chance, with Bichette striking out with a pair of runners on, they didn’t have another base runner until Luis Torrens singled to open the sixth.
With one out, Francisco Lindor picked up his second hit of the day.
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But Jorge Polanco grounded into a force, and with runners on the corners against lefty Hogan Harris, pinch hitter Mark Vientos flied to right and the Mets didn’t threaten again.
They had the bottom of the lineup up in the eighth, and Carlos Mendoza opted to stick with Carson Benge, Luis Torrens and Tyrone Taylor, in part because Luis Robert Jr. was unavailable to do anything but take one at-bat, as the Mets wanted to rest him after playing five consecutive games.
Taylor walked with two outs to extend the inning, but Lindor grounded out.
“It was a tough homestand overall offensively,’’ Mendoza said. “We came back from that road trip feeling good about the way we were swinging the bat. We win the first game here [and] then have a hard time scoring from there.”
The manager noted Sunday the Mets were “at times chasing, passive, in between. There were a few innings of noncompetitive at-bats.”
That led to little traffic on the bases and a long losing streak, as they didn’t drop five in a row last year until mid-June.
“We had some balls hit hard with a little bad luck,’’ Bichette said. “This team is really talented. We’re gonna score runs… We’ll be all right.”
On Sunday, they wasted a solid outing by Peralta, who allowed one run in six innings.
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The damage came on a one-out solo shot to Nick Kurtz on an 0-2 curveball.
The right-hander pitched out of trouble in the second inning, as well as the fourth — when Benge robbed Denzel Clarke of a two-run single with an outstanding diving catch in shallow center — before the Mets got three perfect innings from Sean Manaea out of the bullpen.
“I know we are way better than this,’’ Peralta said. “I know we have a great team and believe in each other. The time is gonna come. I know people want us to win, and we want to win, too. This is baseball. We’ve got to get through these moments.”
