For the fourth game in a row, the offense didn’t get the job done. A close game was lost by the bullpen, as the Mets fell, 5-1, to the Dodgers Saturday night at Citi Field.
Kodai Senga struck out nine in six innings and left with the game tied, 1-1. After Brooks Raley got out of the seventh inning, Adam Ottavino gave up a run in the eighth and Grant Hartwig was charged with three runs, two earned, in the ninth.
But it’s the offense that’s to blame for this loss. After being limited to just one hit on Friday, they managed just three hits in this game. The only run came on a homer by Brandon Nimmo, which tied the game in the fourth inning. Jeff McNeil, Brett Baty and Luis Guillorme went a combined 0-10 with five strikeouts.
Trailing 2-1 in the eighth inning, the Mets got the first two runners on base. But pinch-hitter Mark Canha was retired on a popup and both Baty and Guillorme struck out to end the Mets’ last real chance.
In his last 54 games, Baty is batting .215 with 9 XBH in 194 PA. Even worse, he has a 27.8 K%. We want to see guys, especially rookies, get a fair shot. It’s hard to argue that Baty hasn’t gotten a fair shot here in 2023. He just hasn’t done much with it.
The shame of the 8th inning was the runners were first and third and no outs. Three shots to get a man 90 feet forward and tie the game, but Cahna pops to foul ground off the first base bag on the first pitch and Baty was just overpowered on three fastballs at 97 by a lefty in which he swung late on all three. Guillorme had no shot. I turned it off after that.
The Met players have told Eppler loudly and clearly to sell, sell, sell.
Wasted a great game by Senga. No offense in sight. I’m with TJ – sell.
Gut reaction: it was in exciting game for 7 innings . Alonso non error hurt us. Baty and Guillerme were overmatched. Again, the offense was dormant.