Punchless Mets KO'd by Aaron Nola's four-hitter
Mets first baseman Pete Alonso looks on after grounding into a double play to end the seventh inning against the Phillies in an MLB game at Citi Field on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Mets faced the cream of the National League East crop — Atlanta and Philadelphia — in the five-game homestand that concluded on Tuesday afternoon.
And they found out exactly where they stand: beneath the two division behemoths.
The Mets lost four of five, with most of the blame going to the offense. On Tuesday, they were four-hit by the Phillies’ Aaron Nola in a 4-0 loss before 30,047 at Citi Field.
They scored a total of 11 runs in the five games. Nola had a perfect game until Tyrone Taylor led off the sixth with a single and the righthander finished with his fourth career shutout.
On Saturday, the Mets (19-22) were no-hit by Atlanta pitchers for 8 2/3 innings before J.D. Martinez homered in a 4-1 loss.
On Monday, in a 5-4, 10-inning defeat to the Phillies that included Edwin Diaz’s blown save in the ninth, the Mets went 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base.
They had no such worries on Tuesday as they went 1-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left three on base — two of them in the ninth inning.
The Mets did hit some balls hard against Nola (5-2, 3.10 ERA). But not enough of them went for hits.
“He executed,” Francisco Lindor said. “He moved the ball very well. His curveball was working. He was effective. Whenever we got good swings at the baseball, they caught it. Overall, they just played better than us.”
The Phillies have the best record in baseball at 30-13. Atlanta was 25-13 going into Tuesday night.
The Mets are in the same division, but for now they aren’t in the same league as Philadelphia or Atlanta.
“It’s no fun, for sure,” Lindor said. “It’s no fun. But it’s part of the daily grind. You understand you’re going to have ups and downs. Try to limit the downs. It seems that we are in a month that the uphill fight is very hard. But you’ve just got to do it.”
Trailing just 2-0, Starling Marte led off the seventh with the Mets’ second hit, a soft single to right-center. Lindor lined one 107 miles per hour into the glove of second baseman Kody Clemens. Pete Alonso followed by grounding into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.
The entire inning took three pitches, which helped Nola’s longevity. He finished with 109 as he didn’t walk a batter and struck out eight.
In the ninth, trailing 4-0, pinch hitter Jeff McNeil looped a double to left that got by a sliding Brandon Marsh. Marte added a two-out single to left before Nola got Lindor on a first-pitch fly ball to center to end it.
“I thought he was in complete control,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It’s a combination of a few guys going through it right now, trying to find their rhythm, and a pretty good pitcher that was on today with all his pitches.”
The Phillies swept the two-game series. The teams will play two more in Philadelphia on Wednesday and Thursday.
On Wednesday, the Mets will face early National League Cy Young award favorite Ranger Suarez (7-0, 1.50 ERA). The Mets were supposed to counter with Adrian Houser (0-3, 7.63 ERA), who was set to emerge from a bullpen banishment to make the start.
But Mendoza had Houser warm up in the ninth inning as the Phillies scored two runs on four hits against Sean Reid-Foley. Houser didn’t get into the game, but since he “got hot,” Mendoza ruled him out for Wednesday’s start.
So who will it be? Lefthander Joey Lucchesi, who has been pitching well for Triple-A Syracuse (2.58 ERA) and was scratched from his scheduled start there on Tuesday night.
The Mets are also calling up Mark Vientos from Syracuse on Wednesday to join them in Philadelphia, a source confirmed.
Tuesday’s starter Jose Butto allowed one hit in his five innings, a leadoff single by Johan Rojas in the third. Butto walked Kyle Schwarber with one out and Bryson Stott with two outs to load the bases before hitting Alec Bohm with a pitch for the game’s first run and then walking Marsh to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead.
Butto (1-3, 3.08 ERA) walked four and struck out four. He needed 97 pitches to get through five innings.
“I don’t feel happy about it,” Butto said. “I was fighting myself with the walks. I limited the damage. I just gave up one hit and we lost the game. A bad thing.”
In the first eight innings, Mets pitchers walked eight batters overall but held the Phillies to 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine.
It was an uphill slog to keep the Phillies at two runs before the dam broke a bit against Reid-Foley in the ninth on an RBI single by Stott and an RBI double by Bohm.
The four-run deficit made the Mets’ would-be rally in the ninth a bit anti-climactic. Visiting fans in the remaining crowd chanted “Nola, Nola” and “Let’s Go Phillies” as Lindor made the final out.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
