Mets Continue To Fade In Series Opener Loss To Marlins
The Mets are starting to fade fast, and their hopes of winning the NL East are beginning to slip away by the day, as they are now 24-27 in their last 51 games.
In desperate need of a win on Monday night, the Mets dropped their second straight game in a 6-3 loss to the Marlins to start their seven game road trip.
The Mets found themselves in yet another hole early on, after rookie Tylor Megill had his first rough outing in the big-leagues.
Megill gave up a grand slam to Lewis Brinson in the bottom of the first, which proved to be too much to overcome for the Mets' offense.
And just like that, they were down 4-0 against the last-place Marlins, who always seem to play their best baseball against the Mets.
Megill gave up more runs (four) in the opening inning than he allowed in the entire month of July (three) as a whole.
In the top of the second, the Mets answered back with two runs of their own against Marlins lefty Jesus Luzardo, as Javier Baez scored on a wild pitch, before the red-hot Brandon Drury knocked in J.D. Davis with an RBI double. This saw the Amazins' cut their deficit in half at 4-2.
Pete Alonso brought the Mets within a run at 4-3 when he blasted his 24th home run of the season to leadoff the top of the third.
Two batters later, the Mets suffered a significant scare when Baez pulled up lame while running to first to try to beat out a grounder. Luckily, he was able to stay in the game at shortstop.
But in the bottom half, Megill gave up another run on an RBI double, as the Marlins extended their lead to 5-3.
The Mets avoided an additional injury scare when Megill was seen holding his glute after running to first base in the top of the fourth. Fortunately, he also stayed in the game.
Although Megill's night started out poorly, he bounced back to allow just one more unearned run on three hits in his last four innings of work. Megill's final line was five innings, five runs (four earned) on six hits, with four strikeouts.
Through his first eight big-league starts, Megill has a 2.68 ERA with 43 strikeouts.
While the Mets' bullpen initially kept things close, the offense failed to capitalize. In the top of the eighth, the Mets had their best chance to tie it up with the bases loaded and two outs for Drury. But Drury was unable to come through, grounding out to end the threat.
The Mets' lineup went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, and left nine runners on base in this contest.
In the bottom of the eighth, Trevor May allowed a leadoff triple to Miguel Rojas, before walking Jesus Aguilar. With first-and-third and nobody out, the Mets had their infield playing back. This saw a ground ball from Brinson score another run for the Marlins, but Baez bounced the throw to first that got by Alonso, which setup second-and-third with still no one out.
Manager Luis Rojas then had May intentionally walk Isan Diaz to setup a bases loaded situation. And May was able to bare down to get out of the jam without allowing another run. But the Marlins led 6-3 at this point with the Mets down to their final three outs.
Despite pinch hitting in the sixth inning yesterday and being penciled into the initial lineup on Monday, Brandon Nimmo (hamstring) was ultimately scratched right before the game began, making it the third straight day he has been out of the lineup. However, Nimmo was available off the bench again and pinch-hit for the second straight contest.
The Mets are now 55-50 on the season, they are 8-10 since the All-Star break and have lost six of their last nine games. Their lead in the NL East has shrunk to just 2.5 games after a Phillies win tonight.
The struggling Taijuan Walker will look to right the ship in Miami tomorrow, as the Mets will try to stop their current skid.
