The New York Mets were defeated by the Miami Marlins by a score of 8-4 on Monday night at Citi Field (Box Score).
Steven Matz made his 29th start of the season on Monday night and was unable to deliver for the second straight outing. In an absolute must win to keep their playoff hopes mathematically alive, Matz could not deliver giving up six-runs in five innings.
The Mets bats were unable to scratch across any runs until the bottom of the sixth when Amed Rosario cranked a grand-slam (15) to cut the deficit to 6-4. Unfortunately, the bullpen unraveled in the seventh inning to give up two-more runs on a critical miscue in the field from reliever Brad Brach.
With a Washington Nationals win, the Mets playoff hopes all but evaporated after tonight’s loss as they are now five-and-a-half games back with six remaining. The team’s elimination number is now down to just two-games.
Pitching
Matz breezed through an easy one-two-three first inning on 10-pitches to kick things off tonight. The lefty struck out the first batter he faced looking, before inducing a groundout and fly out.
In the top of the second, Matz gave up a solo homer to catcher Jorge Alfaro (16) for the game’s first run. Despite allowing the home run, Matz set the next three-hitters down in order to get out of the frame.
Jon Berti stroked a two-out double to left field over the head of J.D. Davis in the fourth inning. With Berti on second, Matz was unable to get out of the jam surrendering a single up the middle to Miguel Rojas, which extended the Marlins lead to 2-0.
In the fourth inning, Matz worked around a one-out single by inducing a double play come backer to the pitcher to end the inning.
Austin Dean singled up the middle off Matz to begin the fifth inning. Luckily, Matz got Lewis Brinson to ground into a 6-4-3 double play. This emptied the bases for the opposing pitcher Smith, who was caught looking to end the frame.
Steven Matz came back out for the sixth inning and immediately gave up two-singles (one soft grounder) to put two-runners on and no-outs. The lefty then allowed his third straight hit on a single to right field to Starlin Castro to load the bases.
Matz night ended abruptly after he served up a go-ahead grand slam to Jorge Alfaro (17), which extended the Marlins lead to a 6-0.
Jeurys Familia relieved Matz of his duties to work around a one-out single in a scoreless frame. Unfortunately, the damage was already done as the Mets headed to the bottom of the inning down six.
Walter Lockett was the next man up tonight taking the seventh inning duties. Usually known for his ability to throw strikes, Lockett walked Curtis Granderson to start the frame. He then gave up a seeing-eye hit to Berti to put runners on first-and-second with no outs for the second straight inning.
This pushed Callaway to pull Lockett in favor of the righty Brad Brach to face Miguel Rojas. Rojas laid down a sac-bunt to Ramos, whose only play was to first base, which setup runners on second and third with one-out.
With the hot hitting Starlin Castro up, Brach induced a shallow fly-ball to right field that was not deep enough to score the runner at third on a sac-fly. Callaway opted to intentionally walk Alfaro to face Harold Ramirez, who grounded out to first and just beat Brach who was late to get over to cover the bag. This allowed two more runners to score putting the Marlins up 8-4.
Down four runs now, Callaway made his second pitching change of the inning bringing in lefty Luis Avilan. The left-hander was able to induce a groundout back to the mound to stop the bleeding in the frame.
Edwin Diaz handled the eighth inning tonight recording two strikeouts in a one-two-three scoreless frame.
Paul Sewald came on for the top of the ninth down four and gave up a lead off single to Berti. For Berti, it was his first career four-hit game in the majors. As Tim Britton of The Athletic noted, Berti is 13-for-30 against the Mets this season, after his four-hit night.
Sewald was able to work around a the leadoff hit to retire the next three-batters in a scoreless outing.
Offense
The Mets offense faced off against Marlins lefty Caleb Smith, who went six innings allowing four-runs on seven hits, while striking out four and walking three.
In the bottom of the first, Jeff McNeil laced a one-out single to right centerfield for the first hit of the night. This brought up rookie phenom Pete Alonso, who struck out chasing a pitch in the dirt for the second-out. Up next, J.D. Davis continued his hot hitting by stroking a single to left-center.
Wilson Ramos would then work a two-out walk to load the bases with two-outs for Todd Frazier. Unfortunately, Frazier was unable to deliver as he popped out to shortstop to end the inning.
Michael Conforto led off the top of the second inning by giving a ball a ride to the warning track, but was robbed by Jon Berti on a leaping grab at the wall to rob him of extra bases. After Juan Lagares walked, Matz grounded out, and Amed Rosario flied out to end the inning.
After Pete Alonso and Wilson Ramos singled in the third, this put runners on first and second for Frazier. Once again, Frazier was unable to come through with two-outs and runners in scoring position for the second time tonight.
Conforto drew a lead off walk to start the bottom of the fourth trailing by two-runs. With Conforto on first, Juan Lagares struck out on three-pitches and Steven Matz was unable to get a bunt down. Rosario then popped out to the second basemen to continue to continue the Mets offensive struggles.
The team’s bad luck on offense continued in the bottom of the fifth as Jeff McNeil was robbed of extra bases on a diving stop by the first basemen Dean. Alonso worked a full-count in the next at-bat, but popped out in the infield for the inning’s second out. Davis then flew out to left shortly after that to retire the side.
Up to this point, Mets hitters only had four-hits through five innings against Caleb Smith.
Todd Frazier picked up the Mets sixth hit of the night with one-out in the sixth to try and get something going. Up next, Conforto worked a walk to put two-runners on for Lagares. Juan came through with an infield single to load the bases with one-out.
Mickey Callaway pinch hit clutch veteran Rajai Davis with the bases juiced. Unfortunately, Davis was a bit over anxious swinging at the first pitch he saw and popping out to short.
This brought Amed Rosario to the plate with two-outs, who delivered with a grand-slam to left-center to finally put the Mets on the board and cut the deficit to 6-4.
Tyler Kinley relieved Smith in the bottom of the seventh and struck out Pete Alonso to start off the frame. Following this strikeout, J.D. ripped a one-out double to left field to get thing going for the amazins’. Ramos grounded out to third to hold Davis at second for the second-out of the inning.
This left things up to Todd Frazier, who worked a walk to put two-runners on. Don Mattingly brought in side-arming lefty Brian Moran to face Conforto in a critical spot. Moran would get a king-sized strikeout of Conforto on a slider to end the scoring threat and get out of the inning.
Despite a one-out walk in the eighth, Brandon Nimmo was stranded at second base after a groundout from Rosario and fly-out off the bat of McNeil.
Alonso led off the bottom of the ninth and struck out on a sinker in the dirt for his third strikeout of the night. Davis kept things alive with a one-out single.
Ramos then grounded out for the second out, but moved Davis over to second. This brought Todd Frazier up with the Mets down to their final out. Frazier ultimately flew out to center field to make the final out as the Mets fell 8-4, increasing their magic number for elimination down to two-games.
Up Next:
Noah Syndergaard (10-8, 4.22 ERA) will look to get back on track against Marlins righty Sandy Alcantara (5-14, 4.00 ERA). First pitch is at 7:10 p.m. E.T. and the game can be seen on SNY.
