The Mets are eight games under .500, 16 behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East and 8 1/2 out of the third Wild Card spot after Monday’s 2-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.
“Win — it’s not that complicated,” Showalter said of the solution to the losses for New York (35-43), which is 5-16 since June 2. “You’ve got to win — win games. Everything else — like I said, I could bore you with a lot of things that are going on. Just like we’ve got to get back to how we’ve shown we can play, like we have in the past. But it doesn’ t — just because you’ve done something in the past, good or bad, you don’t become a prisoner of that.
“Things are — it’s always about now. Heck with what happened last year or last week or tonight. You’ve got to get it fixed, and that falls under the real obvious — I mean, that’s a pretty obvious answer.”
Justin Verlanderwho threw five scoreless innings but had to grind his way through 59 strikes on 100 pitches, is 2-4 with a 4.11 ERA.
“I don’t think anybody saw this coming, man,” said Verlander, whom the Mets signed to a two-year contract worth $86 million Dec. 5. “Disappointing. It’s disappointing for everyone in this room, I know. It’s disappointing for the fans. Just got to — just keep trying, you know? If there’s one thing that I know the guys in this room are doing is trying our ass off. Every day we come to the park, myself, it’s trying to get better and figure out what’s off.
“And I know that most of the guys in this room are the same way, and hopefully it clicks for everybody. But we’ve got to get going — soon.”
Twelve games remain before New York enters the All-Star break and hits the reset button.
“It’s a long season and, obviously, the results haven’t been there for most of the guys on the team,” said Drew Smith, who surrendered the go-ahead home run in the sixth inning of his first game back from a suspension for sticky stuff. “And we know that, and we’re trying to be better. I think we will be, as the season goes on.”