Clay Holmes allows two home runs, Mets' bats quiet in loss to Pirates at rainy Citi Field
The Pittsburgh Pirates' Ji Hwan Bae reaches first on a bunt single as Mets pitcher Clay Holmes tries to cover the bag in the fifth inning of their game at Citi Field on Wednesday. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
David Stearns, in the midst of a regular state of the franchise question-and-answer session, was asked if he saw areas of need.
His answer was no, there wasn’t one particular aspect of the Mets that needed immediate attention.
“I don’t see any specific glaring spot on the team right now,” the president of baseball operations said Wednesday afternoon, a few hours before the Mets dropped a thoroughly dreary 4-0 decision to the Pirates at a rainy Citi Field.
Entering the game, the Mets (28-16) had won three straight and were 17-4 at home while facing a Pirates squad whose 5-16 road record was the third-worst in the league.
But in the finale of the three-game series, the Mets could only manage six hits, none for extra bases. They left eight runners on base and went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.
“We didn’t create much,” lamented manager Carlos Mendoza.
It was a trend that revealed itself early when Luis Torrens struck out with the bases loaded to end the first inning.
The missed opportunity would come back to haunt the Mets in the second when Matt Gorski drilled Clay Holmes’ 3-2 sweeper 407 feet over the left-centerfield wall to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead.
Holmes, who started on regular rest for the first time this season, saw his ERA rise to 3.14 from 2.74. He went six innings and allowed four runs and seven hits, struck out four and walked one.
“It felt pretty strong,” said the reliever-turned-starter, who fell to 5-2 this season.
Holmes, who had allowed only one home run in his previous eight starts, yielded two against a Pirates team that only hit 29 in their first 43 games.
His counterpart, Bailey Falter, only went 3 2⁄3 innings due to wildness. Even though Falter limited the Mets to three hits, he walked five and left the bases loaded for Chase Shugart, who induced Jose Azocar to line out to centerfielder Ji Hwan Bae to end the fourth.
Shugart (2-3) got the win going 2 1⁄3 innings in relief. He was followed by Tanner Rainey (one inning), David Bednar (one inning), and Dennis Santana (one inning) and the quartet held the Mets to just three hits in the final 5 1⁄3 innings.
After Sterling Marte led off the ninth with a single to left, Santana induced Torrens to pop out to Gorski at first, then got Brett Baty and Luisangel Acuna to fly out Bae.
The Pirates extended their lead to 4-0 on Jared Triolo’s two-run homer to left in the fifth.
The Mets aided the Pirates’ cause with two baserunning mistakes. Falter picked off Azocar to end the second, and Pete Alonso was thrown out at second base to end the fifth trying to stretch a single into a double.
Neither Juan Soto nor Baty were in the starting lineup. Mendoza explained that he wanted Soto to have two days off — the Mets are off Thursday — before the Subway Series starts Friday night in the Bronx. In the case of Baty, Mendoza wanted to keep “everybody sharp, keeping guys active, and giving guys what we think are good matchups for them.”
While Mendoza acknowledged that the decision to sit Baty, who came into the game hitting .353 (6-for-17) with four home runs, seven RBIs, a 1.412 OPS, .353 OBP, and a 1.059 slugging percentage in six May games, was difficult, Stearns believes the 25-year-old may be beginning to fulfill the promise that led the Mets to select him with the 12th pick of the 2019 draft.
“If you go to catch a week of Brett Baty in Syracuse, you can very easily run into a week like we’ve just seen,” Stearns said. “He’s clearly seeing the ball well. He’s gotten some pitches he can handle and he hasn’t missed them, probably a variety of reasons for that.
“Some of it is confidence. Some of it [is] he’s a really talented baseball player. Some of it is preparation. And it kind of all combines and we’ve had a pretty special week for him.”
Baty pinch-hit for Tyrone Taylor to lead off the seventh but Rainey snared his comebacker. Baty stayed in the game and played second base while Acuna was shifted to centerfield.
Jeff McNeil, who pinch hit for Azocar in the seventh, played the final two innings in right field.
