A DOUBLE WHAMMY!
Mets hurt selves, Yanks with loss
RED SOX 6 METS 3
BOSTON – Exactly 20 years to the day since Mike Piazza launched a goahead home run to help lift the Mets to a patriotic victory over the Braves, it was all too obvious that the 2021 Mets lacked a clutch bat to simply keep them in the game.
A parade of unceremonious at-bats infiltrated Fenway Park as the Mets came to town and lost to the Red Sox, 6-3, on Tuesday night. The Red Sox, elated by the Amazin’s arrival, won their sixth game in a row and kept their lead for the first American League wild card spot. The Boston victory also prevented the Yankees from gaining any ground in the wild-card race.
The Mets (73-78) dropped further back into irrelevance. They’ve lost six of their last seven games, and any remaining fans still clinging to their fictional playoff hopes should start preparing for a remarkable letdown and a long, though hopefully compelling, offseason. The Mets are eight games behind the final wild-card spot, and seven games behind the first-place Braves with 11 games left to play.
“Yes, it’s unlikely. That’s just a fact,” Pete Alonso said in a refreshing display of honesty about the team’s dire position. “We haven’t played up to our potential and as unfortunate as that is, we still have to finish the season strong regardless of where we are in the standings. That’s just what we have to do.”
The Amazin’s had actually taken Tuesday night’s first lead in the fourth inning. The Mets drew their 16th bases-loaded walk of the season when J.D. Davis got a free pass from Eduardo Rodriguez for the club’s first run. Then Michael Conforto ripped an RBI single to center that easily scored Javy Baez from third.
But third-base coach Gary DiSarcina killed the rally by aggressively sending Pete Alonso from second base to home on Conforto’s single. Alonso was out at the plate by a mile, thanks in large part to a perfect throw home from center fielder Kike Hernandez to catcher Christian Vazquez. After the top of the fourth inning, DiSarcina punched the dugout wall in frustration.
“I saw him waving and I gave it my best effort, but I was a dead duck,” said Alonso, who added he respected DiSarcina’s aggressive send. “It was just unfortunate that I was out.”
Manager Luis Rojas added, on the offense failing to capitalize on their fourth-inning opportunity: “I knew two runs weren’t going to do it, and that we had a pretty good chance there.”
Marcus Stroman (9-13, 3.00 ERA) was stung by the long ball in his major-league leading 32nd start of the year. He surrendered his first home run since Aug. 17, then continued a trend of something the Mets pitching staff has struggled with all year: being unable to get Kyle Schwarber out. He gave up a double off the Green Monster to Schwarber, setting up a two-run home run for Xander Bogaerts that erased the Mets lead.
Stroman had kept Boston mostly off balance until the fifth inning. His Houdini moment came in the third, when the Red Sox loaded the bases with no outs. The ground-ball specialist got Bogaerts to ground into a 5-2-3 double play, then he induced a flyout to Rafael Devers to escape the bases-loaded jam.
“They’re good, man. One-through-nine, there’s no easy outs,” said Stroman. “You gotta be locked in. They’re a very aggressive lineup. You can’t throw too many get-meover pitches early in the count, they’re hacking.”