The Mets, after falling to the Oakland Sacramento A’s by a score of 4-0, have pushed their scoreless streak to 17 innings. It’s not what you want.
The good news, which is more existential than tangible after three straight losses, is the loss puts the Mets at an even 7-7 to begin the season, which could be worse. While we all expect more from the team, it also is far from a death sentence — the best teams in every baseball season have stretches where they cannot really hit and go .500 for a spell.
It mostly is just a big old heaping plate of Feels Bad when you start the season that way, especially when 2025 left a sour taste in everyone’s mouths.
Clay Holmes got the start in this one and looked good, until he left the game with hamstring tightness (more on that later). He only struck out three in his five and one thirds innings, but he did a great job of forcing weak contact continuously. He surrendered just one run, which came in the third inning. Old Friend Carlos Cortes singled to lead off the frame, Lawrence Butler walked, and Shea Langeliers singled to bring Cortes home. Holmes managed to keep the damage at just the one run, but that would have been enough for the A’s.
Holmes continued to keep it a 1-0 game into the sixth inning, where he surrendered a one out single to Jacob Wilson, did some hamstring sweeps beside the mound and grimaced in pain, and was quickly lifted by the trainer for Tobias Myers. In his postgame scrum, Carlos Mendoza said that they hope he does not miss a start, so hopefully it stays a minor thing for Holmes, who has had a nice start to his 2026 season.
The Mets offense could not hit water from a boat, however, so that one run was more than enough. They had six hits on the day, and only took three at bats with runners in scoring position. Another old friend, J.T. Ginn got the start and gave up a single hit in four innings, and it became a bullpen game from there for the A’s. Their biggest threat came in the sixth inning, when Jack Perkins came in to relieve Mark Leiter Jr. Back to back singles by Francisco Lindor and Bo Bichette made it first and third with no outs. Jared Young hit a bouncer to first, and Lindor got held up between home and third. Nick Kurtz made a nice play to freeze him, and threw him out as he retreated to third for the first out. Luis Robert Jr. promptly hit into a double play to somehow escape the inning still down 1-0.
Myers was great in relief of Holmes until the ninth inning. He was perfect for the first two and two thirds innings prior to the ninth, but fell apart in the final frame of the evening. A Jacob Wilson lead off single (coupled with a brutal Carson Benge error in left to turn it into a de facto double) and a single by another Old Friend, Jeff McNeil, made it 2-0. A double by the Younger Max Muncy made it second and third. He got a ground out to finally put an out on the board, but a single by Denzel Clarke made it 4-0 and effectively ended the game. Richard Lovelady came into the game to mop it up and did so efficiently, getting Lawrence Butler to ground into a double play.
The bottom of the ninth inning went by quickly, with Jared Young, Brett Baty and Marcus Semien making the final three outs around a Luis Robert Jr. single.
Losers of three straight, the Mets offense is going through it right now. They obviously miss Juan Soto, and with Jorge Polanco battling Achilles bursitis, and Francisco Lindor ending the day with a whopping 73 wRC+, they are behind the eight ball on the offensive side of the ball. The good news is they are far from a terrible place at 7-7, and there are many many many many games left to be played. Despite that, it has been a frustrating watch over the first 14 games.
SB Nation GameThreads
Amazin’ Avenue
Athletics Nation
Box scores
Win Probability Added
FanGraphs.com" />
Big Mets winner: Clay Holmes, +1.2% WPA
Big Mets loser: Luis Robert Jr., -2.0% WPA
Mets pitchers: +1.3% WPA
Mets hitters: -6.3% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Bo Bichette’s sixth inning single, +16.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Shea Langeliers RBI single in the third inning, -11.2% WPA
