The Mets walked off the field with their heads hung low after a miserable performance in game one of the doubleheader versus Miami on Tuesday night, as they took the loss, 4-0, in the seven-inning game.

Rick Porcello pitched three innings and gave up four earned runs before he was knocked out due to a combination of poor performance and an hour and five-minute long rain delay midway through the third frame.

The Mets offense did not prove helpful either, as they were blanked by Marlins’ rookie Daniel Castano, who picked up his first major league win Tuesday evening. New York hitters went 0-10 with runners in scoring position throughout the game.

A trio of runs in the second and another insurance run in the third gave the Marlins all they needed to open the four-game series with a win.

PITCHING

Porcello, making his sixth start of the season, started off strong on Tuesday evening, working Jonathan Villar to a full count before getting him to chase a high fastball out of the zone. Porcello followed it up with a swinging strikeout of Matt Joyce on a changeup and finished off the inning with a pop-up to second base off the bat of Corey Dickerson.

The second is where the right-hander ran into some trouble. Brian Anderson worked a long at-bat and outlasted Porcello, getting a high and inside pitch that he put the barrel on, knocking it off the wall in left field to put a runner on second with nobody out.

Porcello got the next batter to fly out before getting wild and hitting Jorge Alfaro with a pitch. After Jesus Sanchez popped up to third for the second out of the frame, Lewis Brinson singled to left, scoring Anderson for the first run of the game. Some heads up baserunning by the Marlins put runners on second and third after the throw went to home instead of second, giving Miguel Rojas the opportunity to strike for two more on a 3-2 single into right field. Villar popped out to end the inning, but the damage was done.

 

Porcello’s struggles with two outs continued into the third. After striking out Joyce and Dickerson to begin the inning, he gave up a double to Anderson on a ball that had a 60% catch probability per Statcast, the second of the night for the Marlin’s third baseman. Diaz followed with a single into right field, scoring the fourth run of the game, before Alfaro grounded out to end the threat.

After an hour and five-minute long rain delay, the Mets decided to end Porcello’s night early. Porcello’s final line saw him go three innings, giving up five hits and four earned runs while striking out four and increasing his ERA to 6.43.

Corey Oswalt started the fourth, and pitched well for the first two batters, getting Sanchez to ground to second before striking out Brinson looking. Rojas did give him a run for his money, however, driving a ball deep into left field that was miraculously caught at the wall by Dominic Smith for the third out.

Oswalt continued into the fifth, walking Villar after working him to a full count before Joyce struck out for the third time of the night. Although Villar eventually advanced all the way to third on a stolen base and throwing error by Wilson Ramos, Oswalt retired the other two batters to end the frame. Oswalt also pitched the sixth, forcing two groundouts and a flyout to put the fish down 1-2-3.

In a move to save the rest of the bullpen for game two and the remainder of the series, Mets’ manager Luis Rojas opted to keep Oswalt in the game for his fourth full inning of relief. After Brinson legged out an infield single to open the frame, Oswalt retired three batters in a row, ending the inning and keeping the deficit at four, as the Mets’ batters prepared for one last chance for a comeback.

OFFENSE

And comeback they did not. The Mets offense was quite counterproductive on Tuesday evening, as a plethora of hits proved useless with none of their baserunners crossing the plate.

On the hill for the Marlins was rookie Daniel Castano, who made his MLB debut against the Mets on August 8. Castano, making his fourth start of the season, was yet to win a game and rocked a 5.91 ERA coming in.

Brandon Nimmo led off the game for the Mets, working a five pitch at-bat before flying out to center for the first out. J.D. Davis singled up the middle for the first Mets hit of the night and was quickly followed by Michael Conforto, who grounded his own base hit through the hole on the left side of the infield to create an early scoring threat.

The threat was quickly neutralized, however, as Castano showed off a good pickoff move to second and caught Davis slacking. With two outs, sophomore slugger Pete Alonso grounded out to end the frame.

After a leadoff groundout from Robinson Cano in the second, Dominic Smith poked a single into left field, his ninth straight game with a hit. Wilson Ramos drew a walk, and the Mets quickly had another opportunity to bring home a run. Unfortunately, they could not do so, as Jeff McNeil and Amed Rosario went down with little fight.

The bottom of the third started with a fantastic play in right field by Sanchez, as he robbed Nimmo of a base hit with a diving catch. Davis knocked a double down the left field line but was stranded on second base for the remainder of the inning.

The Mets’ half of the fourth started with back-to-back groundouts from Cano and Smith before Ramos lined a ball up the middle, his second time on base on the night. After McNeil walked to put two runners on, Rosario grounded a ball weekly to shortstop, ending the threat once again. Through four innings, the Mets had already left five men on base.

Nimmo led off an inning for the third time in the game to start the bottom of the fifth, as he struck out to give Castano his first strikeout of the night. After Davis lined out to center, Conforto dribbled a ball to shortstop that was bobbled and called a base hit, prepping the plate for Alonso to try and do some damage. After Pete drew a walk, Castano was swapped for Richard Bleier, who got the third out of the inning with no problem, leaving two more men on base for the Mets.

New York went down quickly in the sixth, as Jeff McNeil’s first hit of the night failed to spark the Mets’ offense.

With one more chance to stage a comeback, the Mets did make it interesting, as Nimmo led off for the fourth time of the night and doubled into right center field off of new Miami pitcher Brandon Kintzler. After Davis grounded out to short, Conforto reached on an error by Villar at second base, putting runners on the corners with one out. Unfortunately, the Mets continued to plague themselves with runners in scoring position, as Alonso flew out to center and Cano lined out to shortstop, ending the game.

The New York offense accumulated eight hits to Miami’s six in game one but went 0-10 with runners in scoring position. The Marlins’ pitching managed only one strikeout against the Mets in the win.

ON DECK

The Mets will take on the Marlins again Tuesday night for game two of the doubleheader, in which Seth Lugo (1-2, 2.61 ERA) will make his first start of the year after cementing himself as a polished reliever the last few seasons. He will face Marlins’ former first round pick Trevor Rogers, making his big-league debut on the mound.

The team will finish the series against Miami with full-length games on Wednesday, in which Jacob deGrom (2-0, 1.93 ERA) will get his long-awaited start, and Thursday. On Friday, the Subway Series begins, with a doubleheader of seven-inning games on Friday, a single nine-inning game on Saturday, and another shortened game doubleheader on Sunday to finish off the five-game series.

The upcoming week could prove to be a make or break portion of the season for the Mets, as they play nine games, or 15% of their total games, in six days.