All it took was a road trip to revive the Mets’ struggling bats. Unfortunately, the move away from Citi Field wasn’t as kind to the pitchers and the result was a 10-8 loss to the Rays Friday night in Tampa.
The Mets jumped on top early, to the surprise of everyone, on a 3-run homer by Brett Baty. It was a moon shot, one that both the Rays right fielder, along with the SNY cameraman, completely lost track of.
But the lead was short-lived. Jose Quintana gave up three runs in the bottom of the inning and five more in the third. He was chased after just eight outs in his first outing after completing eight innings. The Rays tacked on another run in the fourth and the Mets were staring at a six-run deficit.
The Mets struck back in the top of the fifth, with back-to-back doubles by Francisco Lindor being the big hits in a four-run inning.
The Rays got an insurance run in the sixth inning. They loaded the bases with one out when Amed Rosario hit a comebacker that looked like it was going to be a 1-2-3 double play. But Jorge Lopez was unable to field the ball cleanly and a run score. The next batter hit one to Baty, who started a 5-2-3 double play to get out of the inning with just one run.
Unfortunately, the Mets’ offense went into hibernation from the sixth to eighth innings. They added a run on Baty’s second homer of the night – no lie! – and after Brandon Nimmo doubled, they brought the tying run to the plate. But Starling Marte ended the game with a terrible swing on a pitch too far low and too far away for anyone but Ike Davis to offer.
Marte’s final AB was doomed before he stepped in the batter’s box. He had made his mind up that he was swinging at the first pitch, and the pitcher had made up his mind to not throw a strike. Then he watched a strike. Then he waved at strike 3 way out of the zone.
No trophies for losing, but good spunk by the offense was nice to see. Baty showing some pop was also excellent…hopefully he can build off this, gain some confidence, and show more consistent power.
Quintana was really bad after being really good. He gets a mulligan, but these starters must sense that too many bad outings and they’ll be out of the rotation…the Mets are very close to having power in numbers, especially if Scott can hold his own.
In the postgame interviews, Jose Quintana said there were only two hard hit balls and the rest found holes. He said that he wishes he could adjust, but it happened so fast and they attacked so quickly that he couldn’t figure out how to stop it. He says after struggling early in the year with his control he just wanted to make sure that he kept it in the zone and they kept just putting the ball in play. I didn’t see the game, but I wonder if the Rays saw something that made them really comfortable swinging at Quintana’s offerings and so they were so aggressive.
Bonus points for getting Ike Davis in!
Gut Reaction : Quintana’s ERA went up from 3.84 to 5.20.
Baty’s OPS went up from .628 to .725 ! He has now a 113 OPS+.
Early May stats can reek havoc or reconstruct a season.