The Mets entered the second half of the season with a Friday night matchup against the Dodgers, looking to put their first half of the season behind them. Needing to win now with the trade deadline just weeks away, the Mets looked as flat as could be and dropped the game 6-0 to fall to 42-49.


After Julio Urías gave up a leadoff double to Brandon Nimmo that was initially ruled a home run but overturned after a review showed the ball bounced off the top of the wall and back in play, Urías didn’t just escape the first inning scoreless. He thrived the rest of his outing and surrendered just two more baserunners and no more hits through six total innings. Three Dodgers relievers followed him up with three more hitless innings as well, holding the Mets to just one hit all game.

“It sucks. This was not a good game of baseball in any facet,” Justin Verlander said, talking after the game about starting the second half of the season this way.

Verlander was on the mound for the Mets and held a no-hitter after four innings. Out of context that sounds fantastic, but Verlander was battling an elevated pitch count and lack of command unlike Urías who was rolling. That put Verlander in a dangerous spot in the fifth as he walked the bases loaded with one out and Mookie Betts at the plate.

Betts made the Dodgers’ first hit of the night count as he singled into left field to make it a 1-0 game. In the next at-bat, Freddie Freeman doubled down the right field line and just like that, a 0-0 pitching duel became a 3-0 ballgame.

Verlander exited the game after throwing 104 pitches through five innings, giving up two hits and striking out six, but also walking six on the way to giving up three earned runs. It was yet another inconsistent and inefficient outing from a Mets starting pitcher, the type of start that seemed routine over the first half of the season.

“Inexcusable,” Verlander said about his outing. “Can’t walk six guys and expect to win a ballgame or give your team a chance.”

Verlander’s departure after five innings led the way for David Peterson to make his first relief appearance of the year in the sixth inning. Getting in trouble right away after giving up a leadoff walk and then a two-out single, Peterson couldn’t complete a clean inning as Miguel Rojas drove in a run with an opposite field single to make it a 4-0 game.

J.D. Martinez added on in the eighth with an opposite field home run before Will Smith drove in another run in the ninth on a fielder’s choice, bringing the Dodgers’ lead to 6-0.

The Mets’ bats failed to put up any sort of effort as the game came to a close, resulting in a dreadful 6-0 defeat for the team’s ninth shutout loss of the year and a brutal start to the second half of the season.

“I’m hoping we can win the next two games against a good team and win the series and move on,” Buck Showalter said after the game, clearly looking to put this one in the rear-view mirror. “I know our guys are frustrated by it.”

Player Focus

Verlander demonstrated the highs and lows he has dealt with this year in this game, evidenced by giving up no hits through four innings and also by his season-high six walks by the end of his outing. The Mets will need Verlander and Max Scherzer to pitch like the aces they’re paid to be if they want to make a playoff push, and this start from Verlander in which he threw 104 pitches and gave up three runs in five innings certainly doesn’t inspire optimism.

On Deck

The series with the Dodgers continues on Saturday evening with first pitch scheduled for 7:15 p.m. ET. Kodai Senga (7-5, 3.31 ERA), coming off a really strong first half, will be on the mound for the Mets while Tony Gonsolin (5-3, 3.86 ERA), who has struggled in each of his last four outings, gets the start for the Dodgers. The game will be broadcast on FOX.