Mets' Bats Silent In Series Opener Loss To Dodgers; Fall Season-Worst 5 Games Back in NL East

Despite pulling out one of the biggest wins of the year yesterday, the Mets failed to build off this victory in a 4-1 loss in their series opener with the Dodgers on Thursday evening.

The Mets dropped back below .500 at 60-61 and are a season-worst five games back in the NL East, having now lost 15 of their last 21 games overall. They have also lost six of their first seven games in this brutal stretch, including their first four games to the Dodgers this season and 22 of their last 26 meetings with Los Angeles.

On offense, the Mets faced off against the Dodgers in a bullpen game, and had six hits, but only one run to show for it, as Los Angeles used seven different pitchers in this matchup.

In fact, the Mets and Dodgers had the same amount of hits in this contest, but the difference was Los Angeles' situational hitting, knocking in four runs on two RBI grounders, along with two knocks with runners in scoring position.

The Mets' bats were dead silent for much of the night, minus J.D. Davis' RBI double in the top of the fourth. They went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base.

"Traditional starters can go six-or-seven innings and they can not necessarily put on the cruise button, but you face them 1,2,3 times and you are able to make adjustments," said Davis on the challenges of going against the Dodgers' 'pen. "But when you've got relief pitchers and you're only going to face them one time and maybe sometimes you've never faced them before or maybe only one time, you just have to go back into your memory bank or into your scouting reports and what not and try to just grind out an at-bat because you know that bullpen over there is electric. Every guy in there might have two-or-three pitches but those pitches are outstanding."

It's safe to say that Mets manager Luis Rojas was not very pleased with what he saw from his club offensively in this game.

"Couple of guys had better at-bats, but we didn't connect much," said Rojas after another lackluster performance from the offense. "Just one run scored on the RBI double from J.D. (Davis). But Pete (Alonso) and (Michael) Conforto had good swings. But that's it, we had our chances, a lot of traffic."

The Mets did not draw a walk tonight, which Rojas believes is a bi-product of their poor approach at the plate.

Although Taijuan Walker no-hit the Dodgers in his last start through the first 6.1 innings, while only giving up a run in seven total innings, it was a different story this time out.

Walker went six innings, but gave up four runs on six hits, while striking out four and walking one. His ERA on the season went up from 3.75 to 3.86 in this start. While it wasn't a poor outing from Walker by any means, he did not receive much run support, which ultimately handed him his eighth loss of the year.

The Dodgers drew first blood in the bottom of the second with two RBI grounders to take a 2-0 lead.

Walker issued a leadoff walk due to a spotty call from the home plate umpire, before allowing a double to Met killer Will Smith to setup a second-and-third situation with nobody out, and the Dodgers capitalized off this opportunity.

But in the top of the fourth, the Mets answered back against the Dodgers' bullpen when J.D. Davis drove in Pete Alonso with an RBI double to cut the deficit to 2-1. This saw Dodgers manager Dave Roberts bring in lefty reliever Victor Gonzalez to face Dom Smith. And Gonzalez caught a break on a big base-running error from Davis, who got doubled off second on Smith's line out to end the threat.

In the top of the fifth, Walker's defense failed him, as Davis' poor decision to throw to first, sailed away to allow the leadoff runner to advance to second base. Although Walker was one out away from getting out of trouble, he surrendered an RBI double with two outs to former Met Billy McKinney, who extended the Dodgers' lead to 3-1.

And the Dodgers got another run on Trea Turner's RBI single to put Los Angeles up by a score of 4-1, which wound up being the final score.

As the Mets continued their tailspin, Rojas says they are in this together and it is his responsibility to get the team ready to play tomorrow in order to stop the bleeding.

"As tough as the losses are and the stretch is, we gotta bounce (back tomorrow), and it's my job to make sure that happens," he said. "It's tough, and we are going through a stretch that we haven't gone through the entire season. Finding ways to prevent some bad streaks, but we are struggling in one area more than others."

"This is a big challenge that we are going through and we have to do this together. No one should be looking down right now."

But it won't get any easier for the Mets on Friday, as they have to face Dodgers ace Walker Buehler for the second time in six days. Especially after Buehler held them to just one run across seven innings, to go along with 10 strikeouts in a 2-1 extra innings win for the Dodgers last weekend.