Mets shut out by Marlins as win streak ends at six games
Mets starting pitcher Tylor Megill reacts during the first inning against the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on Wednesday. Credit: Brad Penner
For one of the few times in this young season, the Mets got to see what it was like to play against . . . well, themselves.
While the Marlins don’t have nearly the same star power, they did do a pretty good impression of their NL East foes Wednesday afternoon, stymieing their bats behind a masterful starting pitching performance by Max Meyer as the Mets dropped the series finale, 5-0, at Citi Field. The loss snapped a six-game win streak, was their first loss at home this year, and was the first time they were shutout.
Meyer rode a nasty backdoor slider and effectively mixed in his secondary pitches for five no-hit innings before finally allowing a single to Francisco Lindor in the sixth. Brett Baty, meanwhile, continued the nightmare start to his season – committing a fifth-inning error that led to two unearned runs and later drawing boos in his final two at bats, a questionable third strike and a groundout.
It couldn’t come at a worse time for Baty, who will have to fight for a roster spot once Jeff McNeil, who began his rehab assignment Wednesday, returns from an oblique injury.
“That’s always kind of in the back of your mind, but what I try to tell myself is that I just have to control what I can control,” said Baty who, after a strong spring training, is hitting .111. “I felt really good today, did a lot of the high-speed machine, a lot of mixed pitch [batting practice] to work on swing decisions…But overall, I definitely need to be better.”
Juan Soto went 0-for-4, failing to reach base for the first time this season and striking out in the ninth inning.
Matt Mervis’ ninth-inning, two-run homer off Edwin Diaz all but sealed the game. It was only the second homer allowed by the bullpen in 12 games this year. The Marlin's bullpen duo of Anthony Bender and Lake Bachar, meanwhile, retired the final nine Mets hitters.
Despite some early trouble, Tylor Megill had a respectable – if necessarily gritty – outing.
His first inning in particular was a case study in extremes: He threw eight straight balls to start the game but after a mound visit, he got Jonah Bride swinging on a knee-buckling curve, and struck Mervis out looking. He later struck out Griffin Conine to get out of a bases-loaded jam.
Megill exited with no outs in the fifth after allowing one unearned run on six hits with three walks and seven strikeouts over 90 pitches. Kyle Stowers led off the fifth with a single. Megill then induced what looked like it could be a force out at second off Bride’s bat, but Baty threw wide of Lindor for the error, allowing both batters to reach.
Myers then singled in the first run of the game to end Megill’s afternoon. The big righty now has a 0.63 ERA over his first three starts. Max Kranick got the next two outs in short order, but he allowed a single off the end of Nick Fortes’ bat to give the Marlins a 2-0 lead – also an unearned run. It was only the second hit Kranick has allowed this season and the first of seven inherited runners he’s allowed to score.
“I thought it was the right play – it just kind of sailed on me a little bit,” Baty said. “I’d probably do the same thing. I would probably try to aim more toward the bag instead of aiming at Lindor coming across the bag.”
Meyer mowed through the Mets lineup through five innings – not allowing a hit until one out in the sixth, when Lindor lined a knee-high fastball up the middle for a single, extending his hit streak to eight games. He allowed the two hits over 6 1/3 innings, with two walks and four strikeouts over 82 pitches.
“He got swing and misses," Carlos Mendoza said. "He used his fastball effectively, stayed on the attack. But I think the main thing was his secondary pitches, whether it was the slider or the sweeper, he threw it for strikes and he got chases, too.”
The Marlins padded their lead in the ninth on Bride’s one-out RBI single and Mervis’ homer – a knee-high slider he golfed 355 feet to right for his third homer of the year. Diaz continued to struggle with his command, throwing 30 pitches and only 16 for strikes before getting pulled in favor of Danny Young. It was a rare misstep for the Mets bullpen, which had come into the game with a major-league best 1.27 ERA.
“We’ve seen [the wildness] at times with him,” Mendoza said of Diaz. “But he’s got the ability to come right back and execute three perfect pitches…I’m not concerned about that.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
