TO NEW YORK! Flat Mets lose Philly finale, return for home opener today vs. Fish

PHILADELPHIA – The Mets’ series finale against the Phillies was one to forget. David Peterson gave up four runs in the first inning of his season debut and the Mets couldn’t overcome the deficit on the way to an 8-2 loss to the Phillies on Wednesday. The brunt of the damage for Peterson came off home runs from Rhys Hoskins (solo) and Alec Bohm (three-run moonshot) in just his first five batters faced.

Peterson corrected himself and pitched into the fifth inning, but left Jacob Barnes to deal with a couple of runners on base, which the reliever allowed to score on a first-pitch threerun home run to J.T. Realmuto. Hoskins troubled Peterson the most on Wednesday, going 3-for3 against the southpaw.

“I think I was just not putting the pitches where I wanted to,” Peterson said. “I think it’s as simple as that.”

Aaron Nola made the Mets lineup, particularly Michael Conforto, look sluggish.

Conforto has faced Nola more than any other pitcher in his seven-year career, and on Wednesday, the right-fielder went 0-for-3 with a strikeout against him. Conforto had the chance to bail out Peterson when he came up to the plate with the bases loaded and the Mets trailing by three runs in the fourth inning. But Conforto fell behind in the count against Nola before the Phillies righty struck him out looking on a curveball.

The Mets lineup, which included Jonathan Villar getting the start at second base over Jeff McNeil, went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position.

“I don’t think any of us are worried about what happened here in this first series, but we’re well aware we can play much better,” Conforto said. “We’ve got a lot of talent, and that’s a great thing, but we gotta go out there and execute.”

The Mets bullpen, across their first three games of the season, put on a discouraging performance.

Trevor May, Aaron Loup, Miguel Castro, Barnes, Jeurys Familia and Dellin Betances all allowed at least one run to score in their initial 2021 outings. Edwin Diaz did not have an opportunity to come in for a save situation and has yet to make his season debut. Without Seth Lugo in the picture, it’s evident the Mets’ relief corps is the weakest area of the team. May corrected himself with a scoreless outing in Tuesday’s win, and Loup and Castro should be better than they’ve been in their small sample size of outings so far.

But with Familia and Betances diminishing, all the pressure and weight will be on May, Loup and Castro to carry the bullpen in high-leverage situations – making for a dreary outlook.

It must have been a jarring reality check for Phillies manager Joe Girardi to see Betances, his former Yankees’ set-up man, enter the game for the Mets trailing by six runs in the sixth inning. Betances was all over the place in his season debut. He plunked the first batter he faced and walked the next. His fastball sat around 91-92 mph and lacked command and he allowed a run to score.

“The (velocity) was probably lower than we expected,” Rojas said of Betances.

The Mets are 1-2 to start the year after a disappointing Opening Day loss that spoiled Jacob deGrom’s scoreless debut, a laborious win on Tuesday and a bland, tired loss in the rubber match against the Phillies on Wednesday. The club is looking forward to a fresh start beginning with its home opener Thursday, which is the start of a three-game series against the Marlins.