A huge issue for the Mets this year has been leaving men on base, especially runners in scoring position. Over on the game preview at Metsblog, Mike Nichols brought up a very depressing, but true statistic:
“The Mets are batting .176 (18-for-102) with two outs and RISP this
season, which ranks them 15th in the National League. The league
average is .227.”
While this has impacted the team greatly, it also felt like the Mets have left a runners on period this season, including over at first. However, I wasn't sure if that was true of if it just felt like that, because in those situations, a fan can get very frustrated and the conception of what is true and what is fiction can be skewed. The following is the last 9 games the Mets have played, not including today, with the date, the decision, the score (scores not in order of home/away), the first number after that is Mets LOB, and the second number Opponents LOB.
4/29 W (5-4) 12, 11
4/27 W (6-3) 8, 8
4/26 W (4-3) 8, 6
4/25 L (6-3) 5, 12
4/24 L (10-5) 9, 9
4/23 W (7-2) 8, 6
4/22 L (8-1) 9, 13
4/21 L (7-1) 3, 6
4/20 L (5-4) 9, 8
Overall during this period of time, the Mets have left 71 batters on base and their opponents have left 79 batters on base. In Mets wins, they leave more batters on base (36-31). In Mets losses, the opponents have left more batters on base (48 to 35).
So here's the conclusion I am going to reach. It seems like the Mets leave more on because we are passionate fans and we get easily frustrated or stressed when the team is not performing up to level we know they can. I think what it also comes down to is the winning team has more hits than the losing team. Its a rarer for a game where the losing team has more runners on base than the winning team, therefore results make sense.
The reason I was surprised with the mathematical results is because I am mentally in the state of the first result listed. I am frustrated and want to pinpoint a tangible problem. Looks like I'll have to grip on to the RISP BA stat for now.
