The New York Mets were defeated tonight at Citi Field by the Boston Red Sox (3-4) by a score of a 4-2.

Steven Matz came off an outstanding season debut against the Atlanta Braves (0-0, 1.50 ERA).

Matz made his second start of the season looking to reflect on his last outing. The journeymen left-hander Martin Perez (0-1, 7.20) was the opposing starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.

Before tonight’s game, the Mets announced some corresponding moves. Infielder Eduardo Nunez is heading to the injured list. Brian Dozier was selected from the Mets Alternate Site Camp which also led to Hunter Strickland being designated for assignment. Strickland will depart from the Mets making three appearances surrendering four runs (three earned) on six hits just in 2 1/3 innings pitched. Left-hander Daniel Zamora was also called up before today’s game to take Strickland’s spot in the bullpen.

Dozier originally signed with the San Diego Padres earlier this summer but ended up getting released from the organization about a month ago. The Mets jumped on the opportunity to ink the middle infielder midway through Summer Camp. Manager Luis Rojas gave him the nod to start at second base tonight to give Robinson Cano a rest and with his success against Red Sox starter Martin Perez he’s had in the past it seemed like a no brainer. Dozier is 5 for 17 against Perez with two home runs.

Pitching:

Steven Matz wasn’t as effective as he was in his prior outing, against the Red Sox this evening. Matz pitched 5 1/3 frames, gave up three earned runs, eight hits, and walked two batters. The three earned runs were all given up to Christian Vazquez on two laser beam home runs. Matz was pulled out from the game after 101 pitches with one out, being responsible for the runner at first.

Drew Smith the first candidate to be pulled out of the bullpen. The 26-year-old right-hander successfully secured the next two outs to complete the inning. Luis Rojas had Smith pitch into the sixth inning, had a very successful outing pitching a 1-2-3 inning. He has made three appearances out of the bullpen and has shown trust so far with his pitching mechanics not giving up any runs yet this season.

Jeurys Familia looked absolutely sharp coming out of the bullpen in the eighth, he struck out two out of the three batters he faced.

Edwin Diaz pitched the ninth inning in a non save situation. Diaz had not pitched since last Saturday against the Atlanta Braves but all I can say he did not look great. The command from Diaz was all over the place he could not locate his fastball or control his slider. Luis Rojas pulled the plug on Diaz finally after hitting Jose Peraza which brought in another run for the Red Sox.

Paul Sewald came in to get out of the bases-loaded jam with one out so the Mets had at least a chance at the bottom of the ninth inning to come back. He struck out Kevin Pillar and then got the next batter to fly out to center to end the frame.

Offense:

It took till the bottom of the third inning to get the bats rolling, already being down 1-0 on a solo shot from the scorching hot catcher Christian Vazquez.

Wilson Ramos started off the inning with a leadoff walk. Brandon Nimmo next up to bat, doing what he does best he got hit by the pitch, now the table is set with runners at first and second. Amed Rosario grounded out to the third baseman, Jose Peraza took the force out at third. Rosario ended up reaching first though on a throwing error by Peraza moving runners to first and third now. Pete Alonso was next in the batting order, walked on a 3-2 count to set up bases loaded for Jeff McNeil.

McNeil smacked a line drive past the shortstop into left field for a two-RBI single, Nimmo and Rosario came around to score to give the Mets their first lead of the night at 2-1.

Brian Dozier made his Mets debut at second-base going (0 for 2) striking out his first at-bat, then grounding out into an inning-ending double play. He was pinched hit for Robinson Cano in the seventh inning.

The Mets had so many chances of scoring tonight to get back ahead of the Red Sox being down 3-2 since the fourth inning. It was all in the hands of recent rookie call up Andres Gimenez with the bases loaded with 2 outs to try and get the Mets the lead. But unfortunately, he grounded out to the first baseman to end the inning with no runs scored. The Mets offense struggled immensely with runners in scoring position going 1 for 9.

On Deck:

Rick Porcello (0-1, 27.00 ERA) will look to bounce back in his second start against the Atlanta Braves tomorrow as the Mets will start their first road series of the year in a four-game series. The Braves will be starting Sean Newcomb (0-0, 2.70 ERA). Tomorrow’s game will be back on SNY with the best broadcasters in baseball with the call from Gary, Keith, and Ron. The game will start at 7:10 pm.