The White Sox have developed a flair for dramatic finishes at the Mets’ expense.
For the second time in three days, the White Sox walked off the Mets with a home run, as New York took a tough 2-1 loss Sunday in Chicago. Tristan Peters blasted his first career walk-off homer to center field off Kodai Senga in the bottom of the ninth inning, voiding an otherwise good day for the Mets pitching staff.
Nolan McLean pitched six shutout innings for New York, but the Mets lineup missed several opportunities
against Chicago’s pitching staff. The White Sox didn’t fare much better offensively, finally breaking through with a run in the eighth to take a 1-0 lead, and scoring again with Peters’ walk-off.
The Mets’ lone run came in the ninth inning on an RBI single by Jared Young. Young’s hit tied the game 1-1 and set up rookie AJ Ewing for a chance at the biggest hit of his fresh career. Ewing struck out with the bases loaded against White Sox reliever Grant Taylor to end the rally and set the stage for a disappointing ninth. Ewing also had a chance at snagging the Peters’ homer, in what would have been one of the best catches of the year. He couldn’t quite grab it as the Mets dropped the series rubber match.
Senga’s move to a ninth-inning arm had been going well in a limited sample size, earning four saves in as many tries. But with no room for error Sunday, Senga was on the hook for the loss, bringing his season record to a brutal 0-9.
McLean was cruising early, striking out five of the first nine batters, but briefly struggled in the third inning. Sam Antonacci got the White Sox’s first hit before McLean walked Munetaka Murakami and Miguel Vargas to load the bases. Fortunately for the Mets, Andrew Benintendi was next up for Chicago. Benintendi had three at-bats with the bases loaded in Saturday’s game, but only came away with a sacrifice fly. McLean struck out Benintendi to keep the White Sox off the board, but more than doubled his pitch count to survive the third.
Quickly bouncing back, McLean didn’t allow a runner into scoring position over the next three innings. The young right-hander allowed just one hit but walked four across his six shutout innings. Dedniel Núñez picked up where McLean left off with a scoreless seventh inning. However, Daniel Duarte couldn’t keep the shutout going as Benintendi redeemed himself with an RBI double in the eighth.
With the White Sox going with a bullpen game, the Mets lineup couldn’t get going despite being one of the hottest teams since the trade deadline. Francisco Lindor led off the game with a double and added a single in third to account for half of the Mets’ hits through the first six innings. Sean Newcombe and Erick Fedde combined to pitch six scoreless innings for Chicago. Fedde was especially effective, getting through his four innings on 44 pitches with no walks and two hits allowed.
New York missed an opportunity in the seventh inning with Fedde finally running out of gas. Carson Benge led off with a ground-rule double and Luis Robert Jr. drew a walk to chase Fedde. White Sox rookie Hagen Smith entered in relief and struck out Young, Francisco Alvarez, and Marcus Semien to strand the runners and keep the game scoreless.
In Saturday’s 10-5 win, Mets interim manager Andy Green had success with his pinch-hitting decisions, but mostly ran out of luck in Sunday’s loss. New York’s four pinch hitters went 1-for-5 with four strikeouts. Bo Bichette’s 12-game on-base streak also came to an end.
The Mets get Monday off before hosting the best-in-baseball Milwaukee Braves for a three-game series starting Tuesday at 7:10 PM EDT.
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What’s WPA?
Big Mets winner: Nolan McLean, +36% WPA
Big Mets loser: Kodai Senga, -36% WPA
Mets pitchers: -15% WPA
Mets hitters: -35% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Jared Young single, +30% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Tristan Peters home run, -42% WPA
