Edwin Diaz blew the save in the ninth inning and Jake Diekman couldn’t hold the lead in the 10th, as the Mets fell to the Rays, 7-6, Sunday afternoon. The Rays swept the three-game series and the Mets have now lost eight straight games in Tampa.
For the third straight game, the Mets scored first, this time on a two-run homer by Francisco Lindor. But Luis Severino gave up three runs in the second inning and another in the third. After going eight innings last time out, Severino needed 90 pitches to complete four innings. He had his best frame in the fifth, needing just eight pitches. But the 100-pitch boogeyman was more important than the fact that he retired the last five batters he faced with 15 pitches and he was pulled after five innings and 98 pitches.
The Mets went ahead in the fourth inning, as Omar Narvaez had an RBI single and Brandon Nimmo drove in two runs.
They could have put more runs up early, as Pete Alonso came up with the bases loaded in both the third and fourth innings but came up empty both times, including an inning-ending double play in the fourth.
Three relievers were able to hold the lead to the ninth inning, giving Diaz his first save opportunity since April 15. He got two outs but then gave up a solo homer that tied the game.
The Mets scored a run in the top of the 10th inning. But the Rays used a stolen base, walk and triple in the bottom of the frame to win the game.
Mets pitchers gave up nine walks and allowed seven stolen bases. We can be disappointed that the offense didn’t take more advantage of their opportunities but this loss is at the feet of the pitchers.
It’s what bad teams do…..snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I’m convinced now, this is a bad team. Forget playoffs, forget getting back to .500*
*And here I was the optimist, until they started to lose series to teams with losing records.
And why is Alonso still batting cleanup? He needs a few days off.
While the calvary of Senga and Megill are working their way back, there are no reinforcements coming for the offense. I get yelled at for liking the outdated batting average as a measurement but if we look at OPS only Stewart is near .800, and their team average is .684. Scoring first has always been a good recipe for winning and hope they keep it up. If they can’t figure out how to decrease the walks issued, it really won’t matter. The middle of the order killed them today as Alonso and McNeil remain in a funk. Happy to see the Phillies displace the Braves for first place but we’ve sunk to the 5th wildcard spot (only kidding about the WC importance after just 34 games) and are few loses away from sinking much further down in those standings. We have no ace stopper on the staff so we are stuck with a bunch of misfit toys, but when will the light bulb turn on for these under achieving hitters? On to St Louis.
“there are no reinforcements coming for the offense.”
You mean the offense that just scored 15 runs in a three-game series while the team went 0-3?
You mean the offense that’s scored 82 runs in 15 road games for an average of 5.5 runs per game compared to a league average of 4.3?
For whatever reason, Citi Field is suppressing offense to an extreme degree here early on – making the offense look worse than it is, while making the pitchers look better than they are.
From ESPN:
“I thought that was the right play there,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said of Bader’s try. “He’s one of the best defenders there is. He was aggressive. He thought he had a play and just came up short.”
Someone pointed out in the chat that diving wasn’t the right choice. Let’s examine this premise
Let’s say he managed to catch it diving. There’s no way he could have thrown out the runner tagging from 3B. Then the score would be tied with one out. Bad spot with 1 out and runner on 1B, but better than game over
Let’s say he caught it off a bounce. Again, not likely to stop runner at home, therefore scored tied, no outs, runners on 1st and 2nd. Still better than game over
The Christian Scott era may have begun this weekend. Everything else about the weekend stunk. Teams get beat, some losses are tough to take. It happens. Yeah, the offense scored 15 in 3 games and went 0-3, but that doesn’t get them off the hook…the offense so far this season has not been good. The more concerning issues are what looks like no-brainers. I believe Diaz threw 13 consecutive sliders to start the 9th. The 13th was hit out of the part. 13 consecutive sliders? Really? I mean, come on. Next inning, is is possible for Diekman to throw the ball to second…once…change his cadence…his SS is screaming at him…again, how can a guy steal 3rd virtually uncontested on his 3rd attempt, with the SS standing 10 feet from the bag. This is major league baseball. If it’s so easy to steal now, I expect the Mets to be doing something similar to opponents…not happening.
Bader’s dive, yeah he gave it a try, he missed, it’s a bang bang play…the boneheadedness (not to mention 9 walks after a game that they walked in the winning and insurance runs) happened before that win or lose dive. They really played some poor baseball this weekend, quite disappointing.
Gut Reaction: despite giving up nine walks and your cleanup hitter doesn’t cash in two times in the game with the bases loaded, they were only one pitch away for victory. It was a disastrous loss compounded by the fact that they were swept and led in all games at some point.