Mets Nearly Get No-Hit in 2-0 Loss to Padres

The Mets dropped the second game of their four-game series to the San Diego Padres by a score of 2-0. The Padres scored two runs on six hits and one error, while the Mets scored no runs on three hits and no errors. Blake Snell (2-2) got the win for the Padres, Joey Lucchesi (1-4) took the loss for the Mets, and Melancon picked up his 19th save for the Padres.

The Padres took the first game of the four-game series from the Mets on Friday night 4-3. The two clubs continued their series on Friday night in San Diego. It was Snell on the mound for the Padres and Lucchesi on the mound for the visiting Mets.

The Mets went down quiet in the top of the first inning. Kevin Pillar led off with a sharp fly out to center fielder Jurickson Profar. Francisco Lindor and JJames McCann followed with groundouts to end the inning.

After the Mets went down quiet in the top of the first, Manny Macahdo got the scoring started for the Padres in the bottom half of the inning. Following a fly out by Tommy Pham, Machado homered (his seventh of the season) off of Lucchesi, his former teammate, to give the Padres an early 1-0 lead over the Mets.

After Machado homered, Lucchesi forced Jake Cronenworth into a ground out and then struck out Fernando Tatis Jr.

The bottom of the first was a rough inning for Lucchesi’s pitch count, throwing 24 pitches (12 strikes) in the first, but working into four straight full counts against the Padres first four batters of the night. Lucchesi said there was excitement and some nervousness to face his old teammates. He struggled to find consistent command with his pitches in the first, but did collect a solid strikeout to end the bottom half of the inning.

Pete Alonso led off the top of the second for the Mets, grounding out to shortstop Tatis Jr. Drury followed Alonso with a strikeout at the hands of Snell. He would then strike out Billy McKinney for back to back strikeouts to end the inning.

Joey Lucchesi would come back out for the bottom of the second inning, with Eric Hosmer leading off for the Padres. Lucchesi would settle in in the second, striking out Hosmer, followed by flyouts by Wil Myers and Jurickson Profar to sit the Padres down in order in the second.

Jose Peraza led off the top of the third for the Mets against Snell. Peraza would line out to end the inning, followed by a strikeout swinging by Mason Williams and a swinging strikeout by Lucchesi. Snell has four strikeouts through three innings pitched. He has thrown 37 pitches, 26 for strikes as he continues to cruise through the Mets’ lineup with ease. The Mets were hitless through three innings.

Webster Rivas led off the bottom of the third inning for the Padres against Lucchesi and his bright orange and blue glove. As SNY stated on the broadcast, Lucchesi has recently changed part of his pitching mechanics, no longer taking his hands over his head to avoid tipping his pitches, which McCann noticed he was doing fairly consistently. Since taking away the hands over head delivery, Lucchesi has not tipped his pitches nearly as much.

Rivas, a rookie MLB player who is in his first week in the big leagues, got his call-up within this last week after twelve years in the minor league system. Rivas worked a 3-2 count, but would ultimately end up grounding out to start the third inning in his first appearance of the night against Lucchesi.

Lucchesi collected his third strikeout of the night with a strikeout of Snell. Through one rotation through the Padres’ lineup, Lucchesi made just one mistake with the home run to Machado. He has worked himself into deep counts, elevating his pitch count to 40 pitches to get through the Padres’ lineup once.

Lucchesi forced Pham to fly out to right to end the inning.

Through three innings, the Padres had a 1-0 lead, with just one hit between the two the clubs, the home run by Machado. The Mets and Padres would head to the fourth in San Diego.

The Mets were back to the top of their lineup with Pillar leading off the top of the fourth for the Mets. Snell completed his fourth perfect inning, forcing Pillar into a lineout, Lindor into a flyout, and striking out McCann for his fifth strikeout of the night.

Manny Machado, who homered off of Lucchesi in the first, led off for the Padres in the bottom of the fourth inning. Machado worked 3-2, 8-pitch at bat against Lucchesi, but it would be Lucchesi winning the battle, flying out Machado to left field.

Cronenworth followed Machado with a deep double off the wall in center field. Williams gave a great effort to try to rob Cronenworth of the extra innings, but the ball was right off the glove of Williams allowing Cronenworth to earn a double off of Lucchesi.

Luchessi would then be forced to work out of the stretch for the first time Friday night against Tatis Jr. Tatis Jr. hit a ground ball right back to Lucchesi who caught Cronenworth too far from second and tagged him for the second out of the inning. Tatis Jr. is always a threat to run, so Lucchesi would try to keep him close with the first three throws of Hosmer being pick-off attempts of Tatis Jr. When Lucchesi threw his first pitch to Hosmer, Hosmer grounded out to second as Lucchesi worked himself out of trouble to end the fourth inning.

Pete Alonso led off the fifth inning for the Mets. He would fly out to left field to start the inning. Drury would follow with a strikeout. That was six strikeouts for Snell, who was continuing to easily roll through the Mets’ lineup.

McKinney broke Snell’s perfect game with a seven-pitch walk to win a pitch battle with Snell. A great, disciplined at-bat for McKinney.

Peraza followed McKinney in the fifth. He lined out to end the top half of the inning.

Myers would lead off the bottom of the fifth for San Diego. He led off with a bunt hit between the mound and third, with no play possible by Lucchesi who would retrieve the ball in the infield.

Profar followed Myers with a fly out to right field. Rivas followed Profar with a single to center field to put runners on the corners with one out for the Padres. Snell would come to the mound following a mound visit by pitching coach Jeremy Hefner to settle down Lucchesi. There would be action in the Mets bullpen, with Jacob Barnes beginning to warm up for the Mets.

Snell grounded out to advance Rivas to second. The Padres would have runners on second and third with two outs.

Snell’s ground out would end the night for Luchessi with two runners in scoring position. Jacob Barnes would come to the mound for the Mets to face Pham as the Padres go back to the top of their lineup for the third time Friday night. Pham is 0-6 against Barnes in his career. Barnes would make it 0-7 for Pham, who grounded out to end the fifth.

Joey Lucchesi’s final line:

4.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO, 1 HR, 5.79 ERA

Williams led off for the Mets in the sixth. He would strikeout against Snell for Snell’s seventh strikeout of the night.

Jonathan Villar pinch-hit for Barnes in the sixth. He grounded out for the second out of the night. Pillar followed with a strikeout. That was Snell’s eighth strikeout of the night as he continued to no-hit the Mets through six innings and just 80 pitches.

Drew Smith replaced Jacob Barnes on the mound for the Mets in the bottom of the sixth and would face Manny Machado who would lead-off for the Padres. Machado still served as the only run of the night through six innings. Smith would strikeout Machado to start his appearance Friday night.

Jacob Barnes’ final line:

0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO, o HR, 5.19 ERA

Machado was followed by Cronenworth who had a double in the game already. Cronenworth popped out for the second out of the night. Tatis followed Cronenworth with a single to right for the Padres’ fifth hit of the game. Hosmer flew out to end the inning.

Blake Snell returned to the mound for the Padres in the seventh inning. This is the deepest Snell has gone in a game this season as he carried a no-hitter into the seventh against the Mets.

But it was Francisco Lindor to end the no-hit bid for Snell. Lindor singled with a liner to left that was scored as a single and two-base error by Pham to put LIndor on third. It was the Padres’ 42^nd error of the year and the Mets were quickly in business with the tying run on third and no outs in the seventh.

Snell struck-out McCann with a fastball up for the first out of the seventh and the ninth strikeout of the night for Snell. Pete Alonso finished a nine-pitch at-bat with a pop out for the second out of the night as the Mets would continue to struggle with runners in scoring position. Snell strikes out Drury for his tenth strikeout of the night, including three strikeouts of Drury to get out of the seventh. But he did surrender his first hit to Lindor, but would not let anything through in the seventh to get out of trouble.

Smith would return in the bottom of the seventh for the Mets and would face Myers to lead off the inning. Myers led off with a double to get the Padres started. It was the Padres’ sixth hit of the night. Profar would be hit by a pitch and the Padres would have two runners on with no outs in the seventh.

Rivas would follow with a bunt ground out for a double play for the first two outs of the inning.

Tucupita Marcano would come in to pinch-hit for Snell, who’s night would end after seven innings, giving up just one hit. Smith would walk Tucupita and that would be the last batter he faced as the Mets would go their bullpen once again.

Jeury’s Familia replaced Drew Smith on the mound for Smith in the seventh with two on and two outs. He would face Pham who would end up walking to load the bases. Familia would then walk Machado to walk in a run. It would be 2-0 Padres in the sevnth, still with bases loaded. Cronenworth would then fly out to center to end the inning as the Mets and Padres head to the eighth inning.

Drew Smith’s final line:

1.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR, 3.38 ERA

Pierce Johnson replaced Blake Snell on the mound for the Padres in the eighth inning.

Billy McKinney worked a walk to lead off the inning for the Mets to put a runner on to start the inning. McKinney was followed by a ground out by Peraza and a strikeout by Dominic Smith, who pinch hit for Mason Williams.

Travis Blankenhorn pinch hit for Jeurys Familia. Blankenhorn grounded out to second to end the inning.

Trevor May would replace Familia on the mound for the Mets in the eight inning. He would face Tatis Jr. to open the eighth inning. Tatis Jr. flew out to center followed by a lineout to center by Hosmer. Myers would strike out to end the inning.

Jeurys Familia’s final line:

0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 SO, 0 HR, 2.00 ERA

Trevor May’s final line:

1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR, 3.60 ERA

It was the last chance for the Mets in the ninth inning. Mark Melancon replaced Pierce Johnson on the mound for the Padres in the ninth inning to try to close out the game.

Melancon struck out Pillar for the first out of the inning, followed a single by Lindor to put a runner on for the Mets.

Following Lindor’s single, Melancon struck out McCann with a questionable called third strike that looked inside for the second out of the inning. McCannn immediately began arguing the call and was quickly ejected. Coming out to defend McCann, Rojas was also ejected in the ninth.

Dave Jauss would resume managerial duties for the remainder of the game in place of the ejected Rojas.

Alonso would then come to the plate to try to keep the Mets’ fight alive with two outs in the ninth. He did just that lining a single to center to put the tying runs on base for the Mets with Drury coming up needing a big hit with two outs.

Drury would strike out to end the game and the Padres defeated the Mets 2-0 on Friday night as we entered into the early Saturday morning on the East Coast.

The Mets and Padres continue their series on Saturday night at 9:30PM EST with coverage on SNY.