April was a terrible month for the Mets. But April is over, and they won yesterday on May 1st. Surely May was destined to be much better. The 2026 season can now officially begin, right?
Yeah, no. Tonight we had another game where the Mets didn’t come through enough in the clutch—just like every other game in April. The result was an extra inning 4-3 loss.
Following a quiet first inning for the Mets, the Angels got off to an early lead against Nolan McLean. The rookie ace retired the first two batters
with ease, but then surrendered three straight singles (one of them being a little squeaker to an empty spot on the right side of the infield). The third single was hit to right fielder Austin Slater, who unleashed a good throw to nab Jorge Soler trying to get to third to end the inning. Replay showed that the out at third beat the runner scoring at home, but the umpires did not see this, and Carlos Mendoza did not challenge the play, so the run counted and the Mets were quickly behind 1-0. That missed call/non-challenge would prove to be quite impactful.
However, after another quiet inning in the second, the Amazins finally pushed a run home in the third against Angels starter Reid Detmers. Following his impressive defensive play in the first, Slater—in the lineup against the lefty pitcher—socked a one-out double to left field, and after Ronny Mauricio struck out for the second out of the inning, Bo Bichette knocked a single to right to tie up the game.
They failed to add any additional runs on the board, though, and the Angels would retake the lead in the bottom of the fourth. After recording the first out, McLean surrendered a walk and a single to put runners on first and second, and both runners would subsequently advance on a wild pitch. A strikeout of Josh Lowe got the Mets one out away from getting out of the inning, but Vaughn Grissom then blooped a single to center to bring both runs home and put the Angels up 3-1. Another single extended the inning and further contributed to the high pitch count which would end McLean’s night after just four innings (the first time in his young career that he had an outing that short), but he did strike out former Met Travis d’Arnaud swinging to keep the deficit at just two.
Tobias Myers came on for the bottom of the fifth for some long relief and managed to work out of a jam after allowing the first two baserunners on. He followed that with a scoreless second inning, and it was at this point when the Mets’ bats decided to wake up against Detmers. Mark Vientos led off the inning with a double to left field, and Marcus Semien followed with a single to put runners on first and third with no outs. Andy Ibáñez—making his first start as a Met—then hit a ball to deep center to score the runner from third on a sacrifice fly, cutting the lead to just one run. Semien then swiped second base to put the tying run in scoring position, and Tyrone Taylor quickly took advantage by socking a single to center to even it up at three runs apiece.
Two infield singles (one from Ronny Mauricio, who slid into first base and would subsequently have to come out of the game in the bottom of the inning after hurting himself on the play) knocked Detmers out of the game and gave the Mets an opportunity with the bases loaded, one out, and the top of the order up against an Angels bullpen that has struggled mightily in recent times. Alas, Sam Bachman came on and retired Bichette (on a groundout to third base in which Taylor was thrown out at home) and Juan Soto (on a strikeout). Thus, following another scoreless frame from the Angels in the bottom of the inning (started by Myers in his third inning of work, and finished by Huascar Brazobán when Mendoza turned to him with two outs and a runner on), the score remained tie after seven.
Anyway, remember that beleaguered Angels bullpen we just remembered? Well, it should surprise absolutely no one that against the Mets, they suddenly looked like prime Mariano Rivera, as Bachman retired three straight batters in the top of the eighth with two more strikeouts and Ryan Zeferjohn followed with an easy 1-2-3 inning as well. For his part, Brazobán also pitched his own 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the eighth, and Craig Kimbrel then came on for the ninth to try to bring the game into extra innings. After retiring the first batter, Yoan Moncada hit a line drive to first that Vientos inexplicably failed to catch, resulting in a double down the line to put the winning run in scoring position. But the future Hall of Fame reliever bore down, striking out Zack Neto for the second out and then—following an intentional walk to Mike Trout—inducing a groundout to second to end the game and send it to the tenth.
The Mets got a gift in the beginning of the top of the tenth, as Brett Baty—who entered the game when Bichette moved to shortstop following Mauricio’s exit—reached on a catcher’s interference, putting runners on first and second with nobody out and the top of the order coming up. As was the case in the seventh inning, however, the top of the order failed to come through. Bichette grounded into a double play, Soto was intentionally walked with the go-ahead run on third, and Francisco Alvarez weakly flied out to shallow center to end the inning without a single run coming home. Austin Warren then came on with the unenviable task of needing to prevent the ghost runner from scoring to keep the game going. But, well, you already knew that wasn’t going to happen. Jorge Soler led off the inning with a walk, and Jo Adell then lined a sharp single to right to load the bases. Warren, to his credit, did bear down to record two straight outs and get to within a strike of getting out of the inning unscathed. But Oswald Peraza dunked a single into left field to end it.
The Mets are now 11-22. On the bright side, they’re still 1-1 in May. That’s .500! Progress!
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Big Mets winner: Brett Baty, +20% WPA
Big Mets loser: Austin Warren, -36% WPA
Mets pitchers: -11% WPA
Mets hitters: -39% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Brett Baty reaching on catcher’s interference in the 10th, +19.8% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Oswald Peraza walk-off single in the 10th, -34% WPA
