Mets didn't give Dad much to cheer about on Father's Day at Citi Field
Mets outfielder Juan Soto goes to the dugout after making the final out during the ninth inning of a game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday at Citi Field. Credit: Noah K. Murray
At about the same time that Jonathan Aranda’s two-run double squirted past a diving Pete Alonso and down the rightfield line to put the Mets in a six-run hole in the fifth inning, some of the dads in the sellout crowd of 42,804 at Citi Field on Sunday might have wished they had chosen a Father’s Day brunch instead of a trip to the ballpark.
The Tampa Bay Rays sent the Mets to their first sweep of the season with a 9-0 victory at what might have been the quietest sold-out game in Citi Field history.
Dad didn’t get a tie — the Mets gave out Hawaiian shirts, even though it was too chilly to wear them bare-armed — but he did get to see Ty Adcock strike out four in 1 2⁄3 innings for the Mets in mop-up duty.
The home fans, as the saying goes, didn’t have much to cheer about, other than those who stuck around to see outfielder Jared Young take the mound and, after a single and walk, retire Kameron Misner on a fly ball to center for the Rays’ last out of the ninth.
Real Mets pitcher Griffin Canning, who was charged with six runs in 4 1⁄3 innings, continued his descent from surprisingly effective (2.47 ERA in his first nine starts) to looking more like the guy who had a 5.19 ERA for the Angels last season.
In his last five starts, Canning has a 7.08 ERA, and that includes six shutout innings against the Dodgers on June 4. Where was that guy on Sunday?
Canning allowed four hits. Two of them were infield singles and one of those was a misplayed bunt. But the righthander walked five, and all five scored.
Because the Mets were playing the Rays, they must have known what to expect after Canning walked the first two men in the second: that most rare and beautiful thing in baseball, a bunt.
Jose Caballero placed it perfectly to the right of the mound. Third baseman Brett Baty incorrectly assumed that Canning could reach it and took a step back to cover the base. Wrong choice. Everyone was safe on what was scored a single.
That was followed by more Rays small ball and another Mets mistake. A fielder’s-choice grounder made it 1-0. A wild pitch (up and in with Danny Jansen squaring to bunt) made it 2-0. A hard-hit single (finally!) to left by Jansen made it 3-0.
Just like during Tylor Megill’s wild and wild-pitch-filled outing on Saturday in the Mets’ ugly 8-4 loss, the Rays kept nicking the Mets with paper cuts.
Third inning: One-out walk to Aranda. Single moves him to third. Fielder’s-choice grounder makes it 4-0.
Fifth inning: Canning walks two of the first three batters. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza calls in Max Kranick, who on his second pitch gives up the aforementioned two-run double by Aranda.
The Mets’ bats, meanwhile, were getting squashed by righthander Shane Baz.
In the biggest at-bat of the game, with the Mets trailing 4-0 in the third, two outs and the bases loaded, Baz fell behind Pete Alonso 3-and-1.
At last the fans had something to cheer about. They rose and implored Alonso to hit a tying grand slam.
Sure, a two-run single would have been nice, too. But why not get greedy when you have the franchise’s second-leading home run hitter at the plate?
Alas, Alonso ended the at-bat right where he started it: At 243 home runs, nine behind Darryl Strawberry for the franchise lead.
On 3-and-1, he swung through a 97-mph fastball. On 3-and-2, he foul-tipped a 99-mph fastball into Jansen’s mitt to end the inning.
The Mets had won six in a row and looked pretty good on Friday night when they had a 5-2 lead on Tampa Bay in the sixth inning. The Rays scored six in that frame against Paul Blackburn and Kranick.
Kranick, like Canning, is another one of David Stearns’ surprisingly effective low-key finds. Both seem to be regressing to their true selves, though, which is OK if Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea return from the injured list and pitch like their true selves, which is to say very well.
But that’s not going to happen in the Mets’ next 10 games, seven of which are against Atlanta, starting Tuesday at Truist Park. The other three are in Philadelphia.
After those 10 crucial games, we’ll know if this series against Tampa Bay was a blip or a sign of worries to come.
I vote for blip.
“We didn’t play well,” Mendoza said. “You hate to get swept at home, but you’ve got to move on.”
It could just be that the Rays, who are 16-5 against the Mets since 2015, are the Mets’ daddies no matter what day it is.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
