Mets drop third extra-inning game of series in San Francisco

Another day in San Francisco, another painful loss; the Mets fell 3-2 in twelve innings. The third walkoff loss in the last four days was much like the first two. The offense was anemic, managing only five hits, and the poor effort wasted a solid start from Steven Matz and another good performance from the bullpen.

Both teams erased baserunners with double plays in the first - a garden variety 6-4-3 for the Mets, and a stupendous play from Kevin Pillar in the outfield for the Giants. Absorbing that message, the Mets circumvented the issue of baserunners entirely in the second as they took the early lead. With one out, Michael Conforto demolished a curveball that caught too much plate and deposited it in McCovey cove for his 18th home run of the year. Two batters later, Amed Rosario hit his own impressive blast, hitting a 424-foot bomb out to left-center that gave the Mets a 2-0 lead.

That lead wouldn’t last, as Steven Matz couldn’t hold the Giants at bay (no pun intended). In the bottom half, two bloop singles and a ground ball up the middle scored the first San Francisco run, and a pair of doubles off the bats of Buster Posey and Zach Green tied the game up two innings later.

In a development befitting this series, those would be the last runs scored for the next eight innings. Steven Matz finished strong, working around a throwing error by Todd Frazier in the fifth to keep the game tied, then striking out the side in the sixth inning to close out his outing. He finished with six strikeouts in six innings, allowing two runs on six hits and a walk in his second start since re-joining the rotation.

Justin Wilson tossed a perfect inning with a strikeout, and Seth Lugo allowed only one baserunner on a HBP over two innings of work. Mickey Callaway used Edwin Diaz in a non-save chance in the tenth, the second time he’s diverged from his previous statements regarding such usage, and Diaz rewarded his manager with a perfect inning and a pair of strikeouts. Jeurys Familia started the bottom of the eleventh, but walked two without recording an out before being replaced by Robert Gsellman, who induced a ground ball double play and a line out to center field to escape the jam.

The Mets, meanwhile, did as close to nothing as possible on offense. Amed Rosario walked in the 5th and Pete Alonso walked in the sixth and ninth, but those were the only Met baserunners they could manage. J.D. Davis’ single in the 11th was the first Met hit since the fourth but was wasted, as was Todd Frazier’s infield single in the 12th. The strike zone was certainly a factor - both Jeff McNeil and Michael Confoto got wrung up on egregious strike three calls, which was only a small sample of Mark Ripperger]s awful umpiring - but that’s no excuse given that the Giants also had their fair share of calls go against them (as well as their starting center fielder being ejected).

Robert Gsellman came back out to pitch the twelfth and recorded the fist out of the inning on one pitch. That brought Mike Yastrzemski, a 28-year-old rookie, to the plate, and he parked a 3-2 changeup from Gsellman just over the left field wall to give the Giants their third walkoff in four days.

After two of these sorts of losses on Thursday and Friday, there’s not a whole lot to say that wouldn’t simply be repeating ourselves. This team has an offense that’s good but not great and often goes to sleep for long stretches, a bench littered with washed up veterans (please call up Dilson Herrera to replace Hechavarria at this point), and a bullpen that has, at most, three functional options. Perhaps if nothing else we should just be happy that this game only lasted twelve innings rather than sixteen.

With this road trip mercifully over, the Mets will be off tomorrow before starting a series with the Padres. Noah Syndergaard is likely to be shuffled into a start for that series - read into that what you will - and Zack Wheeler is expected to return for a pre-trade deadline showcase soon as well.

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Win Probability Added

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What’s WPA?

Big winners: Seth Lugo, +22.8% WPA; Edwin Diaz, +12.8% WPA;
Big losers: Wilson Ramos, -22.6% WPA; Adeiny Hechavarria, -19.5% WPA; Jeurys Familia, -18.0% WPA; Jeff McNeil, -17.6% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +29.0% WPA
Total batter WPA: -79.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Alex Dickerson grounds into a double play in the eleventh, +18.6% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Mike Yastrzemski homers in the twelfth inning, -42.7% WPA