The New York Mets’ struggles against the Miami Marlins continued Saturday afternoon in a 4-1 loss, as the Mets couldn’t get anything going against Miami’s starting pitcher Max Meyer.
Meyer pitched seven scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and gave up just one hit as the Mets failed to get a runner into scoring position against the right-hander. Meyer is in the midst of a breakout year, recording his fourth scoreless outing of the season, and New York is 2-8 in their last 10 games against Miami.
The Mets’ lone run came with two outs in the ninth inning when Tyrone Taylor hit a pinch-hit double, followed by an RBI single from Mark Vientos. Taylor’s double represented the first runner in scoring position for the Mets since the ninth inning of Thursday’s 2-1 win against the Nationals.
The Mets had Freddy Peralta on the bump to start the game, but he was unable to match Meyer’s dominance despite getting an extra day of rest entering the game. Peralta gave up two solo home runs to Marlins cleanup hitter Liam Hicks, while completing a season-high seven innings to go with a season-high nine strikeouts. Ultimately, Peralta was let down by an offense that has recorded two runs and six hits in its last two games.
Peralta got through the first inning on six pitches, but ran into trouble in the second. He walked Jakob Marsee on four pitches, then gave up a single to Connor Norby. Juan Soto threw to third base rather than to the cutoff man in a failed attempt to throw out Marsee, allowing Norby to advance to second. Owen Caissie immediately made the Mets pay for the mistake when he knocked in a two-run single. Entering the game, batters had gone 3 for 43 with RISP against Peralta before Caissie’s RBI hit.
In the bottom of the third inning, Hicks hit his first solo home run to put the Marlins up 3-0. Otto Lopez followed up with a double, but Peralta retired Kyle Stowers and Marsee to end the threat.
The Marlins put more pressure on Peralta with a two-out rally in the fourth inning. Graham Pauley singled, Joe Mack walked, then Xavier Edwards hit a slow groundball towards first base that Vientos bobbled. Unable to get Edwards out at first base, he threw home to get Pauley out by a considerable margin.
Hicks hit his second homer in the fifth to cap the scoring. Peralta gave up one hit total in the sixth and seventh innings before being relieved by Jonathan Pintaro in the eighth. Pintaro earned a 1-2-3 inning in his second career appearance in the Majors.
The Mets had a base runner in each of the first four innings, but never got traction against Meyer. Juan Soto earned a two-out walk, but Brett Baty struck out to end the first. Vientos snapped a 0-for-10 streak with a softly hit single to lead off the second inning, but Marcus Semien eventually ground into a double play to cancel out the Mets’ only hit against Meyer. Luis Torrens and Brett Baty were stranded after drawing walks in the third and fourth innings, respectively.
Baty hit cleanup for the 13th time in his career and went 0 for 2 with a walk and two strikeouts. The rookie outfield duo of Carson Benge and AJ Ewing each had three strikeouts. Soto and Bo Bichette combined to go 0 for 7 with a walk and a strikeout. MJ Melendez got the start at DH despite having a .242 OPS since May 8, going 0 for 3 with a strikeout.
The Mets look to avoid the sweep on Sunday at 1:40 PM EDT.
SB Nation GameThreads
Box scores
Win Probability Added
Big Mets winner: Mark Vientos, +3% WPA
Big Mets loser: Freddy Peralta, -15% WPA
Mets pitchers: -15% WPA
Mets hitters: -35% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Mark Vientos single in the second, +3.7% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Own Caissie double in the second, +12% WPA
