DISASTER RELIEF
Mets pen crushed as red-hot rook McNeil exits with quad injury
The Mets nearly suffered a bigger loss than the 15-0 massacre staining the Citi Field scoreboard.
Shortly after second baseman Jeff McNeil took the honors of holding the majors’ longest active hitting streak (11 games), the rookie was removed from Sunday’s game against the Nationals with right quad tightness.
McNeil, who went 1-for-2 with a walk before being pulled after the sixth inning, is currently being listed as day-to-day and said he believes it is “nothing too major.”
“It just happened at the end of the fifth, a fly ball to right field, I went out, and on the way back in, I just felt a little bit of tightness,” said McNeil, who is batting .475 (19-for-40) during his hitting streak. “It just feels dayto-day.” Since debuting July 24, McNeil is batting .340 and has hit safely in
each of his past 13 starts. Through 32 games, the 26-year-old is tied for the fourth-most hits (36) by a Mets rookie to start a career. Though the injury appears minor, manager Mickey Callaway wasn’t going to risk losing one of the only reasons to remain excited about the rest of the season. “He could’ve kept on playing, but we decided to get him out of there,” Callaway said. “It just wasn’t feeling great.” When McNeil exited, the Mets looked like they did before his call-up. Entering Sunday with six wins in their previous eight games and the most runs in the National League since the All-Star break, the Mets reverted back to the firsthalf offense, which scored less than any team in the league. Despite going up against rookie Jefry Rodriguez, who entered with a 5.46 ERA in seven games this season, the Mets collected just three hits — with no extra-base hits — and suffered their 10th shutout loss of the season. The 15-run margin tied the Mets’ largest loss at Citi Field and also tied their second-largest shutout defeat in franchise history. After Steven Matz (5-11) delivered seven strong innings of one-run ball, the bullpen provided another callback to how the Mets ended up an ocean out of playoff contention. After opening the three-game series with back-to-back shutout wins, the Mets extended Washington’s scoreless streak to 32 innings, prior to a sixth-inning RBI groundout by Juan Soto. Matz left after the seventh and handed the ball to the bullpen with the National League’s lowest ERA (2.51) in August.
Paul Sewald then promptly set ablaze any opportunity at a sweep.
The righty reliever allowed four of the first five batters he faced to reach base — issuing two walks, including one with the bases loaded — and then gave up a three-run, pinch-hit double to Bryce Harper.
“If we start matching up there, we start using guys that we don’t want to use,” Callaway said when asked why he didn’t bring in a lefty to face Harper. “We were hoping those righties could get through two innings for us, and keep us close. The bullpen’s been tremendous lately, and they just didn’t throw enough strikes.”
Sewald allowed five runs and recorded one out. Tyler Bashlor gave up another three runs. In the ninth, rookie Corey Oswalt fared no better, allowing six runs, which included a Mark Reynolds grand slam.
Like that — like an 11-1 start to the season — another strong stretch evaporated at hyperspeed.
“The bullpen’s been pitching really well,” Sewald said. “So for it to get out of hand like that is disappointing.”