The rain postponed last night’s series opener against the Chicago Cubs. The weather gods decided not to bless us for a second straight night, so we were forced to watch another crappy game of Mets baseball in which the team fell behind early thanks to a bad performance from a starting pitcher and the bats never seriously threatened to get back in the game. The final result was a 9-6 loss for the team’s third straight loss. Read on for the fun, I guess.
Kodai Senga took the mound for the Mets tonight.
It has been a chore to watch him pitch for the better part of a year now, and after a solid 1-2-3 inning in which he looked like the old version of himself, tonight was unfortunately no different. Senga started the second inning off by loading the bases – on a walk, single, and hit-by-pitch – with nobody out, and after striking out Nico Hoerner to record the first out of the inning, he issued yet another walk to force in the first run of the game. A hard-struck sacrifice fly to left brought in a second run but also put the Mets an out away from ending the inning with a manageable 2-0 deficit. Well, unfortunately, Pete Crow-Armstrong had other plans, as he socked a three-run homer over the right field wall to make it 5-0 after just an inning and a half.
The Mets’ bats struck back in the bottom half of the frame, however. Cubs starter Edward Cabrera had tossed a first inning, and he retired the first two batters in the second. But they then loaded the bases on a walk, single, and another walk, bringing Francisco Alvarez up to the plate. On a 2-2 pitch, the number-nine hitter lined a single to center to bring two runs home and make it a 5-2 ballgame. After issuing yet another walk, Cabrera struck out Bo Bichette to end the inning, but only after throwing a lot of pitches and cutting the Cubs’ lead.
Unfortunately, Senga turned around and gave those runs right back before too long. In the top of the fourth inning – with this year’s SNY Kidcaster in the booth, no less – Carson Kelly worked a one-out walk, and Dansby Swanson followed with a two-run homer to left to make it 7-2 Cubs. Senga then issued another walk and was subsequently taken out after recording just one out. Cionel Pérez came on and stranded the runner at first, but that wasn’t nearly enough to save Senga from yet another atrocious line – 3.2 innings, 3 hits, 5 walks, 6 strikeouts, 2 homers, 7 earned runs. It leaves the Mets with only more questions about how to navigate their continued starting pitching woes.
As if this game wasn’t going poorly enough on its own, Juan Soto exited the game after the fourth with what was later revealed to be left side back tightness. Unfortunately, that would not prove to be the most notable injury-related departure of the game, as the bottom of the fifth ended on a groundout in the second base hole in which Cabrera had to cover the bag and came up lame after stretching to catch the throw. A cart had to come out to remove him from the field, and Hoby Milner came on in the bottom of the sixth to replace him.
Of course, none of these factors made much of an impact on the final result. To his credit, Pérez ate 2.1 innings and retired every batter he faced, which the Mets sorely needed simply to help preserve their bullpen. Tobias Myers was not quite as effective when he came on in the seventh, as he surrendered two runs – all in the eighth on three straight doubles – in his two innings of work. He may have surrendered more if not for two successful challenges by the Mets – including one in the seventh in which Crow-Armstrong was thrown out stealing second when the batter behind him worked a walk. Yes, that is apparently possible. No, I don’t have the energy to describe how that happened. Go look it up.
As far as the bats go, Alvarez did hit a one-out solo homer in the bottom of the seventh off former Met Phil Maton, giving him all three RBIs for the Mets on the night up to that point. They scored some more meaningless runs in the ninth, as Carson Benge hit a two-out RBI single and Bichette followed with a two-run homer. Does it matter? Not really. The Mets lost 9-6. Doubleheader tomorrow.
SB Nation GameThreads
Amazin’ Avenue
Bleed Cubbie Blue
Box scores
Win Probability Added
Big Mets winner: Francisco Alvarez, +11% WPA
Big Mets loser: Kodai Senga, -41% WPA
Mets pitchers: -41% WPA
Mets hitters: -9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Francisco Alvarez two-run single in the second, +10.6% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Pete Crow-Armstrong three-run homer in the second, -18.7% WPA
