Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
In most baseball seasons, there is a specific period of time that can be pointed to as the critical point, where a team either surges toward the playoffs, or skids out of contention. These last 13 games against the two top teams in the N.L. West saw the New York Mets skid farther than they have all season.
Despite a brilliant seven-inning performance from Carlos Carrasco, the Mets finished those 13 games on Thursday evening with a loss on to the San Francisco Giants, 3-2. It was their seventh one-run loss during this stretch.
The Giants got off to a hot start against the Mets’ veteran right-hander. LaMonte Wade Jr. looped the second pitch of the game into right field for a base hit, and he was driven home two batters later by Kris Bryant, who smacked a two-run homer over the left-center field wall. The home run marked his sixth as a Giant since being traded, four of which have come against the Mets.
After the first-inning bomb, however, Carrasco settled in nicely. He retired his opponents in order in the second and rebounded against Bryant by striking him out swinging in the third. The 34-year-old finished off his outing by retiring 12 batters in a row, tossing four perfect frames to bring his seven-inning start to a close.
The offense, on the other hand, followed a similar story to previous days, as they had trouble gaining traction. Brandon Nimmo led off the first inning with a base hit, but the Mets promptly stranded him. A walk and a hit-by-pitch put the tying runs on base in the second, but New York again couldn’t capitalize.
In the third inning, Javier Baez grounded into a double play to end the frame following a single off the bat of Francisco Lindor. In the fourth, after a Pete Alonso single extended his hit streak to 11 games, Dominic Smith grounded into a double play of his own. These two twin-killings marked the Mets seventh in just 12 innings of play dating back to Wednesday night’s game in which they had five.
The fifth inning saw some more action involving Nimmo, who lined a ball into the left-center field gap with two outs for his second hit. He attempted to stretch the hit into a double and appeared to have beaten the throw. However, the Giants challenged the play, and sure enough, Nimmo had just slightly come off the bag after sliding in, and the call was overturned. Nimmo finished the game with three singles, accounting for a third of his team’s hits.
By the time the sixth inning rolled around, the Polar Bear had sat quietly long enough. Báez doubled to center field to bring the tying run to the plate in Alonso, and, after being down 0-2, the Mets’ power hitter slugged a ball high and deep down the left field line that just stayed fair, travelling directly over the foul pole for a home run.
Unfortunately, the tie game didn’t last for long. Seth Lugo replaced Carrasco in the eighth, and greeted his competition by surrendering a single, a hit-by-pitch, and another single, handing the lead right back to the Giants on an RBI base hit off the bat of Darin Ruf.
Lugo was replaced by Aaron Loup, who walked the first batter he faced to load the bases with no outs. Thairo Estrada dribbled a ball down the third base line towards a charging Jonathan Villar, who made a brilliant play by glove-flipping the ball home for the force out. Loup settled in after that, punching out Bryant before forcing Brandon Crawford to pop-out.
The Mets offense generated some sparks in the eighth, as a Báez single and two subsequent two-out walks loaded the bases for pinch-hitter Jeff McNeil. McNeil, who was 4-for-10 in pinch hit situations coming into the at-bat, hit the ball sharply but right at Crawford, retiring the side.
After a quick top of the ninth for Trevor May, the Mets came to bat in the bottom half for one last chance to overcome the one-run deficit. Unfortunately, the offense had fallen asleep once again, and J.D. Davis, Nimmo, and Lindor went down in order to quietly end the game.
The Mets finished off their 13 games against the Dodgers and Giants with a record of 2-11, falling five games under .500 and 7.5 games out of first place in the N.L. East. The team will begin a home series against the Nationals on Friday, where Rich Hill will take the mound in hopes of stopping the downward spiral.
