The New York Mets (59-75) dropped their road-trip opener against the San Francisco Giants (68-68) by a final of 7-0 tonight. Despite locking horns through a scoreless first six innings, it was the Mets’ pitching staff that would blink before falling asleep alongside a lineup that notched just three hits.
Pitching:
Zack Wheeler turned in another impeccable start, lasting seven innings and striking out nine in a one-run, four-hit effort that lowered his ERA down to 3.37. Despite his efforts, the righty was ultimately charged with his first loss since June 22.
The only notable hiccup in Wheeler’s start came in the seventh inning after Brandon Belt led off with a double, advanced to third on a weak 6-3 groundout from Austin Slater, and came home on a sacrifice fly by Chris Shaw (the third plate appearance of his big-league career) to break a scoreless tie.
Wheeler allowed two other doubles over the course of his start, but didn’t walk anyone (his first zero-walk start since May 22 against the Miami Marlins), and managed to limit the danger itself to just four three-ball counts. Even the crooked seventh only called for 14 pitches, as Wheeler put a cap on his night with a ten-pitch strikeout of Gorkys Hernandez.
The wheels fell off the bus in the eighth inning for the Mets, as Mickey Callaway was forced to shell out four relievers in a six-run frame.
Robert Gsellman allowed a leadoff home run to rookie catcher Aramis Garcia (the first hit of his career in his first big-league game) and exited just one pitch later after late-inning defensive replacement Gregor Blanco slammed a double off the right-field wall.
Daniel Zamora entered in Gsellman’s place, and struck out his first two batters before intentionally walking Evan Longoria and bringing Belt back to the plate. The first baseman promptly smoked a triple into the alley in right-center to score two and end Zamora’s night.
The next Met to come in was Drew Smith, who allowed RBI singles from Slater, Hernandez, and Garcia in a disastrous 21-pitch outing before being yanked for Jacob Rhame, who struck out Blanco to finally end the inning.
Offense:
The Mets did little to support their starter in what began as a fierce pitcher’s duel between Wheeler and Andrew Suarez and ultimately never went New York’s way.
After Jeff McNeil reached second with a hustle double in the first inning, the Mets failed to bring him home, and proceeded to go down 17 times in a row as Suarez cruised through his next five and two-thirds innings with four strikeouts on 63 pitches.
McNeil would end up snapping the streak himself after being hit by a fastball to open the seventh inning, and after Wilmer Flores flew out the other way and Austin Jackson singled to right, the Mets seemed poised to strike first with men at the corners and one man out. Jay Bruce put everything back into perspective, however, grounding into a 3-6-3 double play.
Brandon Nimmo doubled to right field off Tony Watson to try kicking off a comeback in the eighth, but he would be stranded after Jose Reyes popped out and Michael Conforto grounded out to second base.
In total, the Mets went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and popped out to the infield five times in their fourth shutout loss in the last seven games.
On Deck:
The Mets will look to even the series as the rosters expand tomorrow against Derek Holland (7-8, 3.65 ERA). Steven Matz (5-11, 4.36 ERA) will take the hill for New York as he looks to build off of his successful start last Sunday. The game will start at 4:05 PM (ET) and will be aired on SNY.
