Coming off of a seven-game road trip, the Mets traveled back home to take on the Angels for the first of a three-game series on Friday night. Fittingly, it was Japanese Heritage Night at the ballpark with not only Kodai Senga on the mound, but with Shohei Ohtani making his first visit to Queens. In a game with very little offense, it was Ohtani’s team that came out on top 3-1, sending the Mets to last place in the NL East.
Ohtani had a great night at the plate, as he always seems to. He only recorded one hit, but he reached base three other times via the walk, one of which was intentional. He made his one-hit count, as it was a 115.4 miles-per-hour laser double to right field in the third inning. That set up runners on second and third with nobody out and both runners came around to score on a sacrifice fly and an RBI single off the bat of Mike Moustakas, giving the Angels an early 2-0 lead.
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Outside of facing Ohtani and those two runs he gave up, Senga had a really strong night on the mound. He had good swing-and-miss stuff, especially with his ghost forkball against an Angels lineup that was seeing him for the first time. That led to a terrific outing in which he struck out 10 batters over 6 2/3 innings. With his performance, he lowered his already stellar season ERA from 3.19 to 3.17.
As good as Senga was, though, Angels’ starter Patrick Sandoval was arguably even more impressive. Like Senga, Sandoval also generated plenty of swings and misses, particularly with his changeup. That led to seven strikeouts over six innings in which he only gave up one run and two hits, his lone blemish being a Francisco Lindor solo home run to make it a 2-1 game. Sandoval did walk four batters, including Pete Alonso three times, but those free passes never came back to bite him.
The Mets had a chance to tie or take the lead in the bottom of the seventh inning, with Sandoval being replaced by lefty reliever Matt Moore. Danny Mendick greeted him with an opposite-field double before Jonathan Araúz laid down a bunt that the catcher Logan O’Hoppe couldn’t gather cleanly, putting runners on the corners with still nobody out.
However, a brutal sequence followed in which Tim Locastro struck out on three pitches and Brandon Nimmo hit a shallow fly ball to left field. Mendick tagged up, a questionable decision given where the ball was caught and the fact that Lindor was on deck, and he was easily thrown out at the plate which put a disappointing end to a once-promising inning.
Adam Kolarek and Trevor Gott pitched 1 1/3 combined shutout innings behind Senga out of the Mets’ bullpen before Sam Coonrod found himself in trouble with runners on the corners in the ninth inning. With Coonrod needing just one more out to escape the inning, Nolan Schanuel kept his hitting streak to start his big league career alive by throwing his bat out and looping a tough pitch into shallow center field which scored the runner on third, giving the Angels a massive insurance run and making it a 3-1 game.
The Mets brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but 2023 All-Star closer Carlos Estévez struck out Daniel Vogelbach to put the finishing touches on this one. The 3-1 loss was the Mets’ third in a row as their season record drops to 59-70.
Stat of the Game
With a Nationals victory earlier tonight and the Mets losing this one, the Mets find themselves in last place in the NL East for the first time all year and for the first time since August of 2020. It has been a year of unforeseen lowlights for the Mets and being in last place in late August might just be the worst of them all.
On Deck
The series with the Angels will continue Saturday evening with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET. Carlos Carrasco (3-7, 6.42 ERA) will take the mound for the Mets as he hopes to find any sort of glimmer of hope in what has been a really tough season. For the Angels, 23-year-old Chase Silseth (4-1, 4.00 ERA) will take the mound as he comes off of a rough start against the Rays. The game will be broadcast on SNY.
