Mets blow big lead, drop series to Athletics
Mets starting pitcher Jose Quintana reacts after giving up a grand slam to the Athletics’ JJ Bleday during the fourth inning of an MLB game at Citi Field on Thursday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
First, the Mets lost control. Then, they lost the lead. Eventually, they lost the game.
They dropped the finale, 7-6, and therefore the series to the Athletics on Thursday afternoon at Citi Field.
Outweighing the Mets’ productive day at the plate was an ugly effort from the pitchers, who blew a five-run lead and allowed 12 hits and a season-high 11 walks to one of the worst lineups in the majors.
The Mets have lost three series in August — two to non-contending teams — after losing just one in all of June/July.
Those charmed early-summer months, when the pressure was off and the Mets were hot? That’s over now. In a National League wild-card race that has the Mets two games out of a playoff spot, the pressure is very much back on.
The Mets are 62-59 overall but 4-8 in this most recent stretch.
“We got here by playing with no pressure,” said J.D. Martinez, who preached about the fun-and-loose style of play after the Mets’ May nadir. “We talked about it, that ‘who cares?’ mentality. If we win, we win. If we lose, we lose. What does it matter? That’s what got us here. That’s what we gotta ride out till the end of the season.”
Mark Vientos, who hit two home runs, said: “We’ve been going really well the past couple of months. It’s not realistic that we’re just going to ride that wave all the way to the end of the season. I feel like we gotta keep getting our wins here and there and then we’re going to have a hot streak pretty soon to finish off the season.”
After the Mets put the potential winning run on base with two outs in the ninth, Francisco Alvarez lined out to center to end it. Oakland closer Mason Miller, whose fastball maxed out at 102.3 mph, tossed two innings for the save.
“He’s a good arm,” Martinez said. “He’s the closer for a reason. They really wanted to win — threw him out there for six outs.”
The Mets have walked batters at a 10.1% rate this season. That is second worst in the majors behind the historically bad White Sox, who have done so at a 10.3% clip.
Manager Carlos Mendoza railed against Mets pitchers’ inability to throw strikes.
“Today was not a good day,” he said. “A lot of noncompetitive pitches, ball out of hand, a lot of deep counts. It’s hard to win a baseball game when we give up 11 walks and a hit by pitch. It’s hard to do. We gotta go back and make some adjustments quickly here so we can stop that.”
The greatest offender was Jose Quintana, who finished four innings with four runs, seven hits and four walks allowed.
The Mets staked him to that five-run advantage going into the middle innings by beating up rookie righthander Mitch Spence (2 2/3 innings, five runs). But Quintana gave most of it back in a hurry in the fourth. Oakland (51-71) loaded the bases — for the third time in a game — and JJ Bleday hit a grand slam to right.
“They gave me a really good opportunity to win this game,” Quintana said.
Each of the five relievers who entered behind Quintana walked at least one batter.
The Athletics took the lead in the sixth — permanently, it turned out — by scratching across a pair of runs against Reed Garrett. Seth Brown’s single through the right side of the infield brought in the go-ahead run.
So it goes for the Mets in what Martinez called “the toughest month of baseball.” The dog days of August are hard, he explained, because of the heat and humidity plus the high stress of games that seem to matter more in the standings, before the adrenaline of September kicks in.
“Today,” Quintana said, “was just a bad day.”
Notes & quotes: At 3 hours and 45 minutes, the game was the longest nine-inning contest in the majors since MLB adopted the pitch clock at the start of 2023 . . . Brandon Nimmo was unavailable due to a stomach bug . . . The Mets ended Sean Reid-Foley’s rehab assignment and shut him down from throwing for a few days, Mendoza said. So his return from a right shoulder impingement is far from imminent. They haven’t gotten another MRI and think rest/strengthening will help Reid-Foley feel better . . . Outfielder Carson Benge, the Mets’ first-round draft pick, made his professional debut with Low-A St. Lucie . . . Mark your calendars for spring training 2025: The Mets will open their Grapefruit League slate Feb. 22 against the Astros in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
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.
