Thus far in May, the Mets have done a much better job putting some wins on the board than they did in April. Despite that, it’s not as though all the problems we saw last month have magically gone away. Most notably, the offense continues to be a struggle on a fairly regular basis. In last night’s series opener against the Diamondbacks, the Mets struggled to score all evening (despite facing off against Ryne Nelson, a pitcher who had been previously been scuffling), but were able to finally get some clutch
hits in extra innings to secure the win. Tonight, the offense was quiet once more, and this time those struggles doomed them to a 2-1 loss.
Like Nelson, Diamondbacks starting pitcher Merrill Kelly has struggled mightily in his four starts so far this season, as he entered tonight’s game with an unseemly 9.95 ERA. And the Mets did take a small early lead against him in the top of the second. After the first two batters of the frame were retired, Marcus Semien lined a single to left field, and he subsequently came home after Brett Baty smacked a double in the right field gap. Unfortunately, Francisco Alvarez grounded out to end the inning, and that proved to be the only offense the Mets would muster against Kelly all night. He hadn’t made it through six innings in any of his other 2026 starts, but he went seven tonight and did so tonight with relative ease, surrendering just the one run. The only other hit he surrendered aside from the two in the second was on a two-out double from Tyrone Taylor in the top of the fifth, and Kelly subsequently intentionally walked Juan Soto, giving the Mets two runners on for Bo Bichette. But he softly flew out on the first pitch he saw, and that was the extent of the danger that Kelly would face on the evening.
Meanwhile, Clay Holmes—who has arguably been the best pitcher on the Mets’ staff thus far in 2026—took the mound against Kelly tonight. After being given the lead in the second, he worked through a runners on first and second with one out threat in the bottom of the frame to preserve the 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, Holmes would not be quite as successful in the following inning. He retired the first two batters he faced in the third, but he then loaded the bases on two singles and a walk. Ildemaro Vargas—the current batting leader of the National League—then came up, and he grounded a 2-1 pitch through a hole on the left side of the infield to bring two runners home and give the Diamondbacks a 2-1 lead. Holmes did retire the next batter to end the threat, and those two runs would be the only blemishes against him tonight—though a two-walk in the sixth did end his night before he was able to secure a quality start. Still, his final line—5.2 innings, 5 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts, and 2 runs—would have been good enough to secure a win if the offense had provided more support.
The bullpen subsequently did its job: Austin Warren got the final out of the sixth and then pitched a scoreless seventh as well. Craig Kimbrel overcame two leadoff walks in the eighth to also keep the deficit at just one run. But the Mets bats, as they have done so often this year, were completely and utterly silent in the latter half of the game. Kelly retired the final seven batters he faced on his night, and Taylor Clarke and Paul Sewald then came out of the bullpen to both toss 1-2-3 innings of their own—making it thirteen straight Mets batters retired to close out the night. It marks approximately the 500th time that the Mets went 10+ batters without getting on base this season (that number might be slightly exaggerated, but you know damn well that it feels correct).
The Mets still have a chance to secure their third straight series victory tomorrow, though they will have to do so facing off against Eduardo Rodríguez, who—unlike the other two starters the Mets have faced this weekend—has pitched quite well thus far in 2026. It’s naturally a bit hard to feel overly optimistic that they’ll be able to generate some offense tomorrow after seeing how the previous couple games have done. And even if they do manage to secure the win and get another series victory, the hopes of a miraculous season turnaround will be awfully hard to realize if we don’t see a dramatic improvement in the lineup production soon.
SB Nation GameThreads
Box scores
Win Probability Added
FanGraphs" />
Big Mets winner: Austin Warren, +7% WPA
Big Mets loser: Mark Vientos, -16% WPA
Mets pitchers: +14% WPA
Mets hitters: -64% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Brett Baty RBI double in the second, +11.6% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Ildemaro Vargas two-run single in the third, -19.7% WPA
