The Mets’ bats were frozen on this chilly matinee.
The Mets were looking for their second straight series sweep and sixth win in a row when they closed off the first home stand of the year against the Marlins. However, the bats couldn’t wake up and Miami pitching was quite sharp, leading to a 5-0 Marlins victory.
Throwing in the cold is never a fun exercise, and Tylor Megill was not having a good time of it early on today. After walking the first two batters and allowing a single to load the bases, Megill struck out Griffin Conine to end the first. After getting the first two outs in the second, Megill allowed two baserunners on a walk and a single before, again, getting a strikeout, this time to Kyle Stowers, to end the inning.
In the third, again, after two outs, Megill allowed a Dane Myers single before striking out Conine again to end the threat. In the fourth – you guessed it – with two outs Javier Sanoja singled, but didn’t score.
Megill’s pitch count was up over 80 before he came out for the fifth. Stowers greeted Megill with a leadoff single. Jonah Bride then hit what could’ve been a double play ball, but Brett Baty made a terrible throw to Francisco Lindor, and so both runners were safe. Matt Mervis hit a grounder up the middle to score Stowers, break the tie, and boot Megill from the game. Four plus innings, three walks, six hits, and seven strikeouts was the final line on Megill.
Max Kranick was first out of the ‘pen for the Mets, and he got two quick outs. Nick Fortes then hit a shallow fly ball to left that was misplayed by Brandon Nimmo, which allowed Bride to score, putting the Fish up 2-0.
Two unearned runs shouldn’t have been a big deal for the Mets to overcome, but Max Meyer looked excellent today. Meyer’s slider was quite sharp today, and he was able to keep the Mets off the basepaths, aside from two walks and two hits, the first of which wasn’t recorded until the sixth inning. When Pete Alonso laced a single in the seventh, that was it for Meyer, and he was relieved by Anthony Bender, who got out of the inning unscathed.
Kranick, Ryne Stanek, and Huascar Brazoban kept the Marlins off the board through the eighth inning. Met pitching, through eight, struck out twelve. Edwin Diaz pitched the ninth, and he did not look sharp at all. Diaz walked the first batter to face him, and then sailed a ball to the backstop to advance the runner. A long fly ball led to a tag up, putting Xavier Edwards on third with one out. Bride then laced a ball the other way to bring in the Marlins’ third run.
Hopes of a comeback were dashed after Mervis hit an oppo-dinger to score two, putting the Mets down 5-0. Diaz looked rough all inning, with diminished velocity and poor control.
New York went quietly in the bottom of the ninth, aside from Pete Alonso stinging a ball to dead center that Myers caught before smashing face-first into the wall.
And so, the Mets’ six game winning streak comes to an end, and they were handed their first shutout loss of the season. After the game, the Mets travel to West Sacramento for a three-game series against the location-less Athletics. Griffin Canning will start the series for the Mets on Friday, facing off against JP Sears.
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Box scores
Win Probability Added
Fangraphs.com
Big winner: None
Big loser: Juan Soto, -11.9% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +0.2% WPA
Total batter WPA: -50.2% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Pete Alonso’s seventh inning single, +6.7 WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Nick Fortes’s RBI single, -12.5% WPA