With a lineup that more suited for a spring training game than a May 7th game, the Mets snapped their three-game winning streak with a 6-2 loss to the Rockies at Coors Field. This was the makeup from a snowed out game on Tuesday, another anachronism for early May.
The game began with both the Rockies’ Jose Quintana and Christian Scott trading zeroes, with Quintana getting three quick ground balls and Scott striking out the first two batters on just three pitches apiece.
The first run of the game came
in the top of the second. Austin Slater led off the inning with an opposite field single, which was followed by a Marcus Semien walk. A wild pitch by Quintana moved both runners into scoring position. Andy Ibañez floated a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Slater. After a Francisco Alvarez strikeout, Tyrone Taylor hit a soft liner to left, which scored Semien before Taylor was thrown out trying to stretch it to a double.
The Rockies got on the board in the fourth after Scott threw a flat sweeper to Willie Castro, who singled home Tyler Freeman. Scott looked a bit tired after practically breezing through the first three innings, but was able to strike out Jake McCarthy to end the two-on, two-out threat.
The tiring of Scott became more clear in the fifth, where he started each of the three batters he faced with 2-0 counts. After walking Eduoard Julien, Carlos Mendoza pulled Scott after four and two-thirds innings of one-run ball. With Scott still somewhat recovering from Tommy John Surgery, the Mets are, rightly, being extra cautious with him.
Huascar Brazobán was first out of the Mets’ bullpen, and he induced a groundout from Mickey Moniak to end the inning. Brazobán would come back out for the sixth, but two walks, a wild pitch, and a double off the bat of McCarthy tied the game at two apiece. Austin Warren was next out of the bullpen and, after walking the bases loaded, struck out Brett Sullivan on a held foul tip to escape further damage.
Juan Mejia relieved Quintana with two outs in the sixth, and faced five batters across an inning of work, allowing two walks and striking out two. After the walk to Vidal Brujan, Mejia was pulled for lefty Brennan Bernardino who was called upon to get Juan Soto out. He did just that, inducing a Soto pop up to end the frame.
Warren pitched the bottom of the seventh, and worked around a one-out walk to Moniak by inducing a double play and taking the tie game to the eighth. Craig Kimbrel entered to pitch the eighth for the Mets and continued his tightrope walk from the first game of the series, where he worked around a triple.
This time, he fell off the tightrope and faceplanted.
Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with no one out. A McCarthy grand slam on a 94 mile an hour meatball ended the Mets’ hope of a sweep right quick.
To the Mets’ credit, they would not go quietly into the night. Marcus Semien walked and Carson Benge lofted a single down the left-field line. Alvarez and pinch hitter MJ Melendez would both strike out before bringing up Brujan. Brujan would pop out to end the game.
While this Mets team has looked much improved from the team that the Rockies swept in New York a few weeks ago, they must have a better option than washed Kimbrel to bring in to tie games in the eighth inning.
The Mets travel to Arizona for a three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Nolan McLean and Ryne Nelson square off in game one on Friday night at 9:40pm.
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Box scores
Win Probability Added
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Big Mets winner: Christian Scott and Austin Warren, +19.0% WPA
Big Mets loser: Craig Kimbrel, -36.0% WPA
Mets pitchers: -11.0% WPA
Mets hitters: -39.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Jake McCarthy’s RBI double, -17.8% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Tyrone Taylor’s run-scoring single, +5.8% WPA
