Carlos Mendoza's hook of Christian Scott backfires in Mets' loss to Pirates
Christian Scott pitches for the Mets in Pittsburgh on Monday. Credit: AP/Gene J. Puskar
PITTSBURGH — Consider the Mets fully transitioned from scorching hot to decidedly room temperature.
Their 8-2 loss to the Pirates on Monday afternoon concluded a mediocre road trip against a pair of mediocre or worse teams.
Against the Nationals and Pirates — both of whom are only maybe, technically in the National League wild-card race — the Mets went 4-4.
After an amazing June revived their season, the Mets are supposed to use this stretch of schedule — 18 consecutive games against clubs with losing records — to position themselves as legitimate contenders and trade-deadline buyers. But through the first week-plus of that, they have not taken advantage.
Instead, the Mets will return to Citi Field the same way they left: one game under .500 (44-45). The weak competition will continue this homestand, with the Nationals and Rockies visiting for three games each. Then they’ll hit the All-Star break.
“Honestly, going into this series, knew we were going to face really good pitching — and even with the Nationals,” Brandon Nimmo said. “I know everybody thinks we were supposed to go, like, 6-2 on this road trip, but honestly, 4-4 is not the worst. Would’ve loved 5-3, something like that. But with the pitching that we faced and the offensive production that the team’s put up, I think coming away with this, we can still look at it positively.”
Manager Carlos Mendoza said: “They’re big-league players. They’re big-league teams. They’re going to show up and they can beat anybody at any time. We gotta take care of business, whether we’re playing teams with records below .500 or better than .500. That’s part of the schedule.”
The finale against Pittsburgh (43-47) turned immediately after Mendoza’s decision to pull rookie righthander Christian Scott, who had largely sailed through 5 2⁄3 innings on 77 pitches. After Oneil Cruz’s home run in the fourth, he retired seven consecutive batters.
The Mets planned going in, however, that Scott would be limited to 75 pitches, according to Mendoza. They told Scott as much a day ahead of time. Their reasoning: He had thrown 99 pitches last time and was making this start (and will make his next start) on the regular four days of rest — something he rarely did in the minors.
Scott’s ease in navigating the Pittsburgh lineup did not factor in, Mendoza said.
“It’s a tough spot, obviously,” Mendoza said. “But this kid is too important. We gotta protect him.”
Scott said: “I really trust him and his decision-making . . . I was hoping to get through six. But I knew ahead of time that that was the plan. So just go out and give them the best 75 that I possibly have.”
Mendoza brought in Eric Orze, in his major-league debut, to face the Pirates’ three best hitters: switch hitter Bryan Reynolds plus a pair of lefties in Cruz and Rowdy Tellez. Orze’s pitches, particularly his signature splitter, historically were effective against lefties in the minors.
The gamble did not work out. Orze walked Reynolds and allowed a line-drive single by Cruz. Tellez rolled a soft ground ball toward third base, and Mark Vientos ranged to his left to make a diving stop. But Tellez, among the slowest players in baseball, beat Vientos’ throw to first for a go-ahead single.
“Obviously, it didn’t go the way I wanted,” Orze said. “But I felt confident, I felt good and I’m happy to get the first one out of the way.”
The Pirates added four more runs — including one on Jeff McNeil’s fielding error, one on Adrian Houser’s wild pitch and one on Joshua Palacios’ homer — before the inning ended.
Pirates righthander Mitch Keller held the Mets to two runs in eight innings. Both of those came on Nimmo’s homer in the top of the sixth, which briefly tied the score before the bullpen implosion.
That was the first time in 171 occasions in his career that Nimmo put a 3-and-0 pitch in play.
Scott was perfect through three innings — nine up, nine down — but faltered in the fourth. Andrew McCutchen led off with a nine-pitch walk after falling behind 0-and-2. Cruz crushed a splitter an estimated 431 feet to left-centerfield for a two-run home run.
“He was in complete control of that game,” Mendoza said of Scott. “He was really, really good. It was a hard decision, but we went in [and] it was only going to be 75 today.”
The Mets still have chances to beat up on underwhelming teams, even if they didn’t do it this time.
“Definitely, there’s some games that have gotten away from us,” Nimmo said. “But you know what? Honestly, that’s the story of the year so far.”
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.
