PHILADELPHIA — David Robertson got his National League Championship ring from the Phillies before Saturday’s 4-2 Mets win — a victory he finished with a five-out save.
So Robertson knows better than most how a team’s fortunes can change even with a rough first half, since it happened in Philadelphia last season after he arrived in a trade from the Cubs.
Like his teammates, he’s waiting for that kind of turnaround with the Mets who snapped a three-game losing streak.
Despite the win, the Mets have lost 14 of 19 and are still six-game under .500 and 14 games back in the NL East.
“No one wants to be part of a team that gets split up,’’ Robertson said before picking up his 11th save of the season in the Mets’ victory at Citizens Bank Park. “That’s not an enjoyable year. You don’t want to be on a team where guys are constantly wondering about their future.”
“We’ve got a good team,’’ Robertson said, repeating what he’s insisted throughout the first three months of what’s been a disappointing season. “We’ve just got to go out and do it, starting with today. [Sunday] we hope to take the series.”
Robertson made sure they had a chance to do so, coming in with runners on first and second and two outs in the eighth after Adam Ottavino walked a pair.
The closer entered and immediately got Bryson Stott to hit into a double play, and after allowing a one-out single to Brandon Marsh in the ninth, got another double play to end the game, this one from Josh Harrison.
“We’ve still got time,” Robertson said of the team with MLB’s highest-ever payroll.
But a day after Eduardo Escobar was shipped to the Angels in exchange for a pair of minor league pitchers, it seems there might be less time than they imagined.
“We’ve just got to play better baseball,’’ Robertson said. “We’re not thinking about what’s gonna happen in August or the [trade] deadline. We just want to win some series. We’re not focused on whether we have to be urgent and win a certain amount of games in a certain time.”
Read Related Also: Stanford’s Quinn Mathews tosses 156-pitch Super Regional outing on short rest
Still, they would do well to do that quickly if veteran players like Robertson — and Ottavino — want to ensure they remain with the Mets.
“I can’t control it and I can’t worry about August when we’re still in June,’’ said Ottavino, who has been inconsistent with the Mets. “We’ve got to play right now. Obviously, we need to turn it around. We all know that. But to worry about it is counterproductive.”
Ottavino also noted that the Escobar trade wasn’t as simple as shedding an older player.
“He’s a starting player and he wasn’t playing here, so it’s a different kind of thing,’’ Ottavino said. “We got something for him and he gets to play, so it made sense.”
Robertson is having an excellent season, with a 1.64 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP after he returned to form last season, when he was traded from the Cubs to the Phillies, following disappointing 2019 and 2021 campaigns.
“I knew coming to the Cubs last year it could be a rebuilding year for them and if I proved I was healthy, I could get moved,’’ Robertson said. “With the White Sox [in 2017, when he was traded back to the Yankees], I thought we could be pretty good.”
This season, Robertson said he had a simple mindset.
“I’m not going to worry about it,” said Robertson, who signed a one-year, $10 million deal this season. “I’m just worried about what’s going on between the lines and doing whatever I can to help this team win.”
Ottavino has a similar mindset, although with a $7.25 million player option for next season, he might be less likely to be moved.
“We just have to compete,’’ Ottavino said. “We’re trying to get out of this as quickly as possible and we know we’re only making it harder for everyone the longer this goes on.”
