In today’s newsletter: the Mets blow a very winnable game, more wasted opportunities for the offense, and J.D. Martinez is percolating.
Disneyland of Pain
There are no must-win games in August, even in as tight a Wild Card race as the Mets themselves in right now. But, when you play teams like the Angels — who are going nowhere — and get a huge go-ahead grand slam to turn a two-run deficit into a two-run lead, that’s a game you really need to have. Instead, Huascar Brazobán melted down and gave up a go-ahead home run to Zach Neto in the 7th inning as the Mets fell 5-4 on Saturday night.
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Martinez’ grand slam off former Met Hunter Strickland in the top of the 7th represented the entirety of New York’s offense. For the second night in a row, the Mets struggled mightily with runners in scoring position, going just 1-for-7 as they wasted a strong David Peterson start and blew a chance to gain on the Phillies and Braves.
Angels starter José Soriano scattered five hits and two walks over his six innings as the Mets got runners to second on three different occasions but couldn’t get that one big hit.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles made the most of its chances, taking a 1-0 lead in the 1st inning on a Kevin Pillar — yet another former Met — RBI single and doubled it with a Neto run-scoring knock in the 5th. Peterson pitched well and was one pitch away from escaping both of those jams without any damage allowed but he, unlike Soriano, couldn’t make those critical put-away pitches. One team capitalized on its opportunities and one team didn’t.
The Mets finally broke through in the 7th once Soriano gave way to the Angels’ bullpen. Jeff McNeil walked and Francisco Lindor singled against Hans Crouse, who Ron Washington then removed for Strickland. Brandon Nimmo worked an impressive walk against Strickland to bring up Martinez, who has been playing much better as of late. He got ahead 2-0 before Strickland threw him a low-and-in sinker that Martinez somehow elevated and deposited over the center-field fence for a grand slam.
Just like that, they went from down 2-0 to up 4-2 and seemed to be in great position to steal a win. Carlos Mendoza lifted Peterson after just 82 pitches and brought in Brazobán, who made a nice Mets debut on Wednesday. His appearance on Saturday started well as he struck out Jo Adell and Matt Thaiss with changeups but then Michael Stefanic singled and Nolan Schanuel walked.
Mendoza opted to leave Brazobán in and paid the price. He left a cutter right over in the inner half of the plate to Neto who turned on it, hitting a laser beam of a three-run home run to left that once again flipped the game on its head. The Angels took a 5-4 lead and never looked back.
The Mets threatened in the 8th against Matt Moore as Mark Vientos smacked a ground-rule double to lead off the inning. However, Luis Torrens, McNeil and Tyrone Taylor followed that up with three-straight groundouts, continuing the theme of this series so far. Hard-throwing Ben Joyce retired the side in order in the 9th for his first career save, finishing off Martinez with a 104.7 mph fastball. A frustrating loss for the good guys.
What To Note
Martinez is heating up a bit, going 6-for-16 with eight RBIs over the last five games. The Mets have really missed his run production in the middle of the lineup so getting him back on track is huge.
Good bounceback for Peterson even in the loss. He still isn’t striking many guys out (just four over six innings) but he didn’t give up much hard contact and probably could have pitched into the 7th. The Mets will gladly take six two-run innings from Peterson in any of his starts.
Jake Diekman was officially released, a few days after the Mets designated him for assignment. That means they’ll be on the hook for the rest of his salary for this season unless he signs a new deal with another team, in which case the Mets will owe Diekman his salary minus the prorated league minimum.
One day after his incredible 13-strikeout performance with Binghamton, starting pitching prospect Brandon Sproat has been promoted to Triple-A Syracuse. It’s Sproat’s second promotion of the year and certainly means that the Mets are considering a late-season call-up to the bigs. He’s only one step away.
Wild Card (and NL East) update: The Mets are seven games behind the Phillies in the division. Philadelphia has lost six-straight games and has seen much of its division lead melt away over the past few weeks. New York is 1.5 games behind Atlanta, which lost to Miami last night. The Padres won (one game ahead of the Mets) and Diamondbacks lost (half-game ahead of the Mets) so, for now, the Mets are just out of a playoff spot. The Cardinals are 1.5 games behind the Mets and the Pirates are two games back.
Looking Ahead
The Mets try to avoid a rough series loss as José Quintana takes on Griffin Canning in Sunday’s rubber game at 4:07 p.m. SNY has the call. Quintana is coming off a nice start against the Twins last week in which he allowed only one run over six strong innings. He has given up two runs or fewer in seven of his last eight starts.
Canning has had a rough year with a 5.25 ERA in 22 starts. He was shelled by the Rockies in his last time out.
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