Adrian Houser stumbles from the start, Mets can't catch up in loss to Cardinals
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, left, takes the ball from pitcher Adrian Houser during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Saturday, April 27, 2024. Credit: AP/Noah K. Murray
Adrian Houser, the weakest link in the Mets’ rotation, will remain in the rotation, manager Carlos Mendoza said.
After Houser struggled again from the outset in a 7-4 loss to the Cardinals on Saturday, upping his ERA to 8.37 through the first month of the season, Mendoza remained committed to the veteran righthander, saying: “Our job is to get him back on track. He’s part of the rotation.”
St. Louis plated four runs in the top of the first, lowlighting Houser’s ugly outing: 4 1⁄3 innings, nine hits, six runs.
That brutal early sequence proved to be the difference. The Mets’ last-ditch rally attempt ended when, with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, Francisco Lindor, representing the potential winning run, popped out to shortstop Masyn Winn on the first pitch he saw from closer Ryan Helsley.
The rest of the Mets’ starting pitchers have a combined 3.49 ERA.
“The way I’m pitching right now is pretty unacceptable,” Houser said. “I need to be better. Can’t be putting these guys in a hole right in the beginning of the game. I need to let these guys be able to score some runs, be able to keep them in the game. I’m not able to do that right now. Not executing. Not really helping out.”
The boos from the Citi Field crowd of 32,332 began during that sequence in the first, when pitching coach Jeremy Hefner visited the mound and Houser was one out and 24 pitches into the game. And they continued when Houser made that walk back to the dugout in the fifth.
The mystifying piece: Nobody seems to know why Houser has performed so poorly. He said, “It could be a lot of different things.”
Mendoza said: “Obviously fastball command, stuff, pitch sequence. He’s going through it right now. Our job is to get him back on track . . . I know [pitching coach Jeremy Hefner] is working really hard and he is too. He’s been in the league for quite a bit now. He’ll get through it.”
With Kodai Senga (shoulder strain), Tylor Megill (shoulder strain) and David Peterson (hip surgery) working their way back from injuries, the Mets don’t have a lot of options. They prefer to let top prospect Christian Scott continue to pitch in Triple-A. Joey Lucchesi also is available in the minors.
“I’ve been racking my brain the last couple of weeks, trying to figure it out,” Houser said. “Still trying to do that. I’m in a little bit of a rut right now. I’m trying to pull myself out. The game has punched me in the mouth. I gotta find a way to respond and punch back.”
The Mets (13-13) nearly punched back, but instead they lost for the fifth time in six games.
Lindor went 0-for-5 and found himself in the middle of a couple of key moments, including the final out. He had struck out in his first four at-bats. Facing Helsley, who had just walked Brandon Nimmo and was up to 23 pitches in his third appearance in four days, Lindor swung at the first offering, a 101-mph fastball over the middle of the plate.
“When you have four strikeouts, you swing,” he said. “I thought it was a good pitch for me to hit. It was a pitch right there. I just missed it.”
An inning earlier, Lindor was enraged when plate umpire Erich Bacchus called him out for running out of the baseline. Lindor had struck out, but the ball got away from catcher Willson Contreras, necessitating a play at first base. Contreras’ throw was wild. Then came Bacchus’ call.
Lindor, plainly furious, barked at the ump. Mendoza ran from the dugout to take up Lindor’s case.
Replays showed that Lindor was so deep into the infield grass that he had to bear to the right to get to the base.
“They got it right,” Lindor said. “Bottom line, they got it right. So hats off to them. I was definitely too much in the grass.”
Mendoza said: “Looking back on the video, he was way inside. So they got the right call.”
St. Louis righthander Sonny Gray limited the Mets to one earned run (four total) in six innings, cruising early and grinding late. The Mets struck for a four-spot in the fifth, half on Nimmo’s single and half on Pete Alonso’s 200th home run.
The only other players to hit that many with the Mets: Darryl Strawberry (252), David Wright (242) and Mike Piazza (220).
“Obviously, special [feat] for a special guy,” Mendoza said. “It’s one of those where you talk to him, he wishes we could’ve got a W.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
