Diamondbacks Drop Series to Mets Behind Lackluster Offense

PHOENIX -- The Arizona Diamondbacks lost the rubber match of a three-game set with the New York Mets at home on Wednesday by a score of 7-1. Arizona's bats were almost completely silent, and Merrill Kelly ran into a late wall.

Kelly's outing began in impressive fashion. The right-hander tossed a 1-2-3 first inning and worked around a fielding error by Tim Tawa to record a scoreless second. After a one-out Francisco Lindor double in the third, Kelly proceeded to set down nine straight.

That streak was broken up by Juan Soto, who sent an inside fastball over the wall in center field to give the Mets a 1-0 lead, but he limited the scoring to one. With his pitch count in good shape, and no sign of his recurrent cramping issue, he went back out for the seventh inning.

"Whatever we did worked," Kelly said about his cramping postgame. "I think that's the tough part, it's hard to say that we did this and it didn't work today, or we did that and it didn't work today, but I tried moving around a little bit more, trying not to shut down, just trying not to cool off too much.

"I felt like I was maybe trying to down-regulate a little bit too much in between innings and then expecting the nervous system to go out and fire, so I think it was probably just a little confused.

"Obviously, we didn't get the win on the field, but for me the no cramps is obviously a win," Kelly said.

But that's when things began to take a turn for the right-hander. He proceeded to surrender a leadoff double, followed by an RBI single and RBI triple, spotting the Mets a pair of insurance runs and a 3-0 cushion. Left-hander Jalen Beeks entered with one out and collected the final two outs without further damage.

Still, Kelly exited with a solid final line, pitching 6.1 innings and allowing three runs. He allowed six hits, but did not walk a batter, and struck out six.

"Merrill did a great job of keeping us in this game," Torey Lovullo said postgame. "I thought overall, the concerns that we had about Merrill with the body, would he be ready? He went out and addressed those and did an excellent job.

"There were some changes to the routine in between innings. I spoke to you guys about that pregame. I don't know exactly what that is, but I think a lot of it worked," Lovullo said.

"He was pounding the zone, had a real nice fastball, good command. ... "I had made a decision at 84, 86 pitches to send it back out there to complete the seventh. I had total confidence in that part of the lineup. He was going to be able to do it, but he just maybe ran out a little bit of gas."

Beeks pitched a decently efficient 1.1 innings, but was bit by Soto's second homer of the game — the second time Soto has had a two-homer game against Arizona. Jose Castillo walked three and allowed a double and sac fly over 1.1 innings, allowing New York to put the game out of reach.

But the D-backs' offense certainly didn't offer much of a chance to win. Despite working an impressive five walks off Kodai Senga, they only managed two base hits against the righty.

Arizona recorded six base hits on the day but stranded seven, going 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.

After an Eugenio Suárez walk, Alek Thomas rapped a sharp double to the left-field gap. But Suárez was cut down at home, and Thomas was eventually stranded. Similarly, the D-backs worked a pair of walks to lead off the third, but a poor bunt attempt by Geraldo Perdomo and a routine ground ball double play from Pavin Smith wasted another opportunity.

Once Senga exited, Arizona got a pair of two-out singles from Thomas and Tawa, but Ketel Marte's pinch-hit at-bat resulted in an easy groundout to second base.

The D-backs' lone run came off the bat of Corbin Carroll, who blasted his 11th home run of the season to dead center to lead off the eighth inning. The ball traveled 427 feet at nearly 107 MPH the bat.

Perdomo then singled on a hard ground ball, but never made it past first base. Arizona went down without a baserunner in the ninth, dropping to 19-18.

"I felt like it was going to be a little bit of a grinder today. ... you get that type of start from Merrill, you're expected to win the game, put up some [runs], but we just couldn't get a big hit," Lovullo said.

The Diamondbacks will welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers to Chase Field on Thursday at 6:40 p.m.

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