Mets' Tylor Megill roughed up as Rays take first two games of series
Tylor Megill of the New York Mets leaves the game against the Tampa Bay Rays during the fourth inning at Citi Field on Saturday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Tylor Megill made so many poor pitches out of the 82 that he threw on Saturday that it was hard to pick out the worst one.
It was easy to pick out his worst throw overall, though. It was the one he didn’t make.
As Megill tried to throw Taylor Walls’ fourth-inning bunt to first base for an out, the ball slipped out of his hand. Megill completed the throwing motion, but the ball already was on its way to the grass. The Rays were on their way to a five-run inning and the Mets were on their way to an ugly 8-4 loss at Citi Field.
“The ball slipped out like a wet bar of soap,” play-by-play man Andy Freed said on the Rays’ TV broadcast, which was a great description and made sense, given that the game had started after a 51-minute rain delay and the ball was wet.
Wells’ bunt was a safety squeeze and gave Tampa Bay a 3-2 lead. What followed in the rest of the inning left the Mets trailing by four and sent them on their way to a second straight loss after six wins in a row.
The Mets had taken a 2-1 lead in the third on a leadoff home run by Brett Baty and a two-out RBI single by Brandon Nimmo.
Tampa Bay tied it when Junior Caminero led off the fourth with a homer to left. After Megill’s error on the bunt, he struck out Josh Lowe for the second out.
Then the walls really caved in for Megill. Or, as manager Carlos Mendoza said, “He lost it there, pretty much.”
A single by Brandon Lowe made it 4-2. A single by Yandy Diaz made it 5-2 and brought out the Citi Field boo-birds.
A walk to Jonathan Aranda loaded the bases. A wild pitch allowed Brandon Lowe to score to make it 6-2. A walk to Caminero — the 10th man to bat in the inning — re-loaded the bases and finally brought Mendoza to the mound to remove Megill, who heard more boos as he walked off.
“I feel like he was fine for the first time through the order,” Mendoza said. “In that fourth inning, we don’t make a play — he doesn’t make the play on that bunt.”
Mendoza pointed out that Megill did get the second out . . . but if he hadn’t fumbled the bunt, it would have been the third out.
“He got the strikeout there, and then it kind of spiraled,” Mendoza said. “Base hit. Base hit. I felt like there was a lot of non-competitive pitches, especially the secondaries. A few pitches, ball out of the hand, where he’s bouncing them and then when he came in the zone, they were all over him.”
Megill lamented the error — “it, like, just slipped right through my fingers,” he said — but didn’t seem to otherwise think he had pitched that badly.
“Just kind of put myself in tough situations,” he said. “I pitched to put the ball in play. Could have had better two-strike execution. I made some quality pitches there. Some soft contact and a couple walks.”
Megill’s final line: 3 2⁄3 innings, seven hits, six runs, three earned, three unearned runs because of his own error, two walks, two hit batters, one wild pitch, five strikeouts.
Megill fell to 5-5 and his ERA rose from 3.76 to 3.95.
The Mets didn’t give up. But they also didn’t stop the ugliness after Megill left.
The Rays made it 7-2 in the fifth with help from a passed ball by Luis Torrens before Walls’ RBI double.
Ronny Mauricio homered and Nimmo had another two-out RBI single in the bottom half as the Mets closed to within 7-4.
In the sixth, the Mets let in their fourth unearned run of the day. Reliever Jose Castillo dropped Pete Alonso’s chest-high toss at first base for an error that allowed Brandon Lowe to reach. Diaz followed with an RBI triple off the rightfield fence and it was 8-4.
About the only thing that kept the Mets in the game were the three Rays who were thrown out on the bases in the fifth and sixth innings.
In the fifth, Torrens threw out Walls trying to steal third and Josh Lowe trying to steal second (not on the same pitch).
In the sixth, Diaz tried to score on a would-be wild pitch, but Torrens gathered it and threw to Jose Butto for the out at home.
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.
