Here's where things stand for Mets one-third of way through season

NEW YORK -- For those in the business of evaluating professional baseball teams, Memorial Day tends to be the first notable inflection point from which to draw conclusions. April doesn’t provide a large enough sample size. April and May combined offer a more comprehensive look.

One day after the unofficial start of summer, the Mets on Tuesday played their 53rd and 54th games. They are exactly one-third of the way through their season and, with the exception of a brief period in late April, their compass has consistently pointed south.

Tuesday offered no reprieve, as the Dodgers swept the Mets in a doubleheader at Citi Field. After squandering an excellent Tylor Megill start in a 5-2, 10-inning loss in Game 1, the Mets showed little evidence of a spark throughout a 3-0 defeat in Game 2.

Losses are stacking up in heaps now. The Mets (22-32) have fallen to a season-worst record and are at risk of entering June double-digit games under .500 for the first time in 23 years.

“We haven’t played well enough,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said before the doubleheader. “I think everyone associated with us would acknowledge that.”

For much of the early season, Stearns has bemoaned his team’s inability to “line up all phases” of play on a given night. So it was Tuesday, when Megill delivered the longest scoreless start of his career in Game 1 only to watch the bullpen implode over the final two innings. Unwilling to insert struggling closer Edwin Díaz into a one-run game in the ninth, manager Carlos Mendoza turned instead to Adam Ottavino, who joined a growing group of Mets relievers to blow saves in recent weeks.

The team has failed to convert five of its last seven save opportunities and eight of its last 14.

“We let that one get away,” Mendoza said.

In Game 2, the Mets never had a chance to blow a save, as the Dodgers jumped out to an early lead and easily preserved it. Along the way, a loud contingent of Los Angeles fans overwhelmed the silent majority backing the Mets -- facing little resistance while rooting for Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. One of the loudest cheers of the evening went to a scoreboard update announcing that the NHL’s Rangers had scored a goal.

“We have no momentum right now,” second baseman Jeff McNeil said. “Nothing.”

It’s not as if the Mets are incapable of improvement, but at every turn, they’ve found obstacles strewn across their path. Kodai Senga, their unquestioned ace entering the season, has yet to throw a pitch due to a shoulder capsule strain suffered in February; team officials spend time on a near-daily basis defending his deliberate rehabilitation process.

Star players Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, McNeil and Díaz, in the prime seasons of long-term deals worth a combined $655 million, are all having arguably the worst campaigns of their careers.

A roster built at least partially on defensive aptitude has been below average in that regard. Questions have begun to surface regarding the viability of the team’s position-player core, which has won a single playoff game in four years together.

What’s more, help is not exactly banging on the door. The organization’s top prospect, Jett Williams, could require surgery for a nagging wrist injury. Two of the Mets’ top nine pitching prospects heading into the season have already undergone season-ending elbow operations, while two others, Mike Vasil and Dom Hamel, have produced ERAs over 7.00 in the Minors.

Given all that, it’s reasonable to wonder if owner Steve Cohen’s stated contention timeline -- a “bridge” year in 2024, followed by improvement the following summer and, eventually, sustained excellence -- has been delayed. The Mets’ Trade Deadline strategy, which could include deals of Pete Alonso, J.D. Martinez, Luis Severino and others, will be telling. Continued losing will make it difficult for Stearns to justify anything other than aggressive moves involving anyone on an expiring contract.

But the Deadline is not for another two months. Between then and now, the Mets will continue taking the field on a daily basis hoping -- however rationally or not -- that winning ways will follow.

“I do believe we’re capable of that … based on the talent that we have in the clubhouse and the belief that that group has in itself,” Stearns said. “But I also said [recently] it doesn’t matter what I think. We have to go out and do it.”