Mets' bats go quiet in loss to Athletics, J.T. Ginn

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — For as deep and dangerous as the Mets’ lineup may well be, here is their early-season reality: It is top-heavy. When the big bats at the beginning don’t get it done, the others haven’t, either.

That was the case Saturday afternoon in a 3-1 loss to the Athletics. Starter David Peterson and reliever Jose Butto did well to limit the A’s, but that was even more true of their counterparts.

The first third of the Mets’ order finished 0-for-9.

Francisco Lindor, who had his hitting streak snapped at eight games Friday night, drew a walk and reached on an error but wound up hitless for a second contest in a row. Juan Soto, whose .818 OPS is middling by his standards, likewise walked twice but did nothing in his other two plate appearances. And Pete Alonso, by far the Mets’ best hitter across the first two-plus weeks of the season, went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and five runners left on base.

Given the dearth of offensive production from third base, second base, centerfield and DH, the big three at the top are all the more important.

“Right now, Pete is pretty much the one carrying us,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “But the fact that we are creating traffic and we’re getting guys on base — they’ll step up . . . One through nine, we got a good offense. They’ll come through.”

Lindor said: “Pete has been picking us up a lot, so everybody has to come through.”

Lindor gave credit to Athletics righthander J.T. Ginn, a former Mets prospect who held his original organization to one run and four hits in 5 1⁄3 innings.

The Mets broke through only on Brandon Nimmo’s home run — a no-doubter onto the rightfield berm — in the sixth inning. Ginn struck out six and walked two.

“Man, he was really good,” Mendoza said. “He was very effective. The movement on his pitches was unbelievable today. That sinker was really, really good. And the cutter. Nothing was straight. Everything was in to righties, then away. Same thing with the lefties. He made pitches when needed. We created a little bit of traffic, but we couldn’t string together a rally. But he was really, really good.”

Ginn, 25, who appeared in eight games last season but retained his rookie eligibility for 2025, had a successful season debut as he tries to establish himself as a major-leaguer. Selected by the Mets in the second round of the draft in 2020, he got shipped to the A’s in the March 2022 deal that brought Chris Bassitt to Queens.

Now he is an option for the A’s, who called him up just before the game.

“It was just one of those days,” Lindor said. “The pitcher beat us. Hats off to him.”

Flamethrowing A’s closer Mason Miller maxed out his fastball at 103.7 mph in a scoreless ninth inning. With the Mets down to their last strike, Luis Torrens nearly tied the score with a two-run home run, but his long drive to rightfield landed just foul.

Peterson worked around plenty of hard contact for a fine final line: six innings, seven hits, two runs. He totaled five strikeouts and didn’t walk anybody.

Both runs came across in the fourth, when the Athletics strung together six consecutive hard-hit balls, beginning with Jacob Wilson’s double chopped between Alonso and the first-base line.

“I didn’t really [read] much into what they were doing,” Peterson said. “They were just kind of flipping singles, putting the bat on the ball and having good at-bats. I was trying to stick to my game plan and go right after that.”

Peterson rebounded by posting two more scoreless innings. He said he didn’t do anything differently in those frames.

By completing six innings, Peterson matched his own March 31 performance for the longest by a Mets starter this year.

The Mets entered the weekend 26th in the majors with 4.9 innings per start. They need longer outings, and the starters plan to deliver.

“It’s huge. It’s been talked about quite a bit, the length we had in the first homestand. As starters, that’s not really what we’re looking for,” Peterson said. “We — talking to each other — made a group decision that we need to pick it up. The bullpen did their job, did excellent at home. Being able to try to get some length and try to give some of those guys a break is something I was trying to do today.”

By Tim Healey

timothy.healey@newsday.com@timbhealey

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.