Mets get good news healthwise, then suffer painful blowout loss to Padres
Jake Cronenworth #9 of the San Diego Padres collides with Tomas Nido #3 of the New York Mets as he scores during the third inning of a baseball game at Petco Park on June 8, 2022 in San Diego, California. Credit: Getty Images/Denis Poroy
SAN DIEGO -- The Mets look to have gotten the break they were looking for, rather the one they very much feared.
That’s going to have to be enough to make Wednesday night’s blowout sting a little less.
Pete Alonso, who was struck by Yu Darvish’s 95.7-mph slider Tuesday, does not have a broken hand, the first baseman confirmed before the 13-2 loss to the Padres at Petco Park, and could potentially avoid a stint on the injured list. Meanwhile, Starling Marte, who left Tuesday’s game with left quad tightness, believes he could be back as soon as Thursday.
“I’m kind of surprised in a good way with how it feels today,” Alonso said. “I think in a day or two we’ll know where we’re at with the longevity of this thing.”
Though that’s undoubtedly good news, the vague timeline, along with their most lopsided loss of the year, further underlines how much the Mets need both Alonso and Marte. The lineup, which has been so good working around injury, wasn’t able to do much against Sean Manaea. The biggest culprit, though, was their pitching, starting with a rough outing from Chris Bassitt.
Bassitt lasted 3 1/3 innings, allowing seven runs, six earned, on seven hits, with two walks and six strikeouts, leading the Mets to their second straight loss. It’s only the third time they’ve lost a series this year.
Bassitt, who had 2.34 ERA over his first seven starts, has pitched to a 7.62 ERA over his last five, though that’s largely due to two bad outings. The Padres scored five runs in the fourth and four in the fifth, the latter against Steve Nogosek. The Mets also committed three errors leading to two unearned runs.
"I'm a little bit at a loss for what happened," Bassitt said. "I'm beyond embarrassed and really upset that I'm putting the bullpen guys in a position to basically clean up the rest of the game."
And though the Mets do hope to avoid losing either Alonso or Marte for 10 days or more, Buck Showalter said the team will continue to approach both injuries with caution.
“This is as positive a news today as we could hope to get but we’ll play them both by ear,” Showalter said. “We’ll see what they say tomorrow and see how things progress…We’ll lean on the players and the medical team.”
Tests on Alonso’s right hand were negative, and the Mets did not reveal the results of Marte’s MRI, though the right fielder indicated there was no significant damage.
Alonso, who’s broken his other hand three times, said this injury mimicked the one he sustained last year, also the result of a hit by pitch. He tried to play through it for weeks before eventually landing on the injured list with a hand sprain, and he’s looking to avoid a similar fate. Alonso hit just .132 playing hurt last year.
“I didn’t really do a whole lot of good for my team (then) because I was kind of a shell of myself for about three weeks and then going on the IL and having to play catch up on the recovery process,” Alonso said. “We’re just going to nip this thing in the bud now, get it recovered, get the swelling out and we should be good to go.”
And though the Mets have been able to withstand significant injury so far, losing Alonso for an extended time might be a bridge too far.
He’s compiled a slash line of .282/.363/.546 this year, leads the National League in home runs with 16, and all of baseball with 54 RBIs. Alonso sitting also snaps his 151 consecutive game streak, though he believes he’ll still reach his goal of playing 162 games this season.
“I still feel like I’ll play more than 162 games because we’ve got the playoffs,” Alonso said. “I want to be prepared for the long haul.”
Marte, who hurt himself while trying to stay on the bag during an attempted steal, said his walking has already improved. He strongly believes he’ll dodge the IL.
“I feel good,” Marte said through an interpreter. “It could have been worse, obviously. For now, it’s day to day. We’ve been working pretty much all morning to get it right and I’m going to continue to work on it and I’ll be back on Thursday.”
Since neither player is immediately headed to the IL, the Mets bench will be thin in the interim; Wednesday, it was just Patrick Mazeika and Khalil Lee, who was called up from Triple-A Syracuse. Reliever Adonis Medina was optioned.
Showalter said that there may be more moves Friday as the Mets get a clearer picture. They’re off Thursday.
Either way, it’s better than they expected.
“I’m just really blessed and happy that nothing is fractured,” Alonso said. “This is probably the best-case scenario for sure.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
