In true Mets fashion, the team got the tying runners on in the ninth, only to take two poor at bats in a row to finish off another frustrating loss to the Phillies. The final score may have been 5-3, but most of the game was uncompetitive and the team was lucky to even get that far.
Full disclosure. I have been in an Olympics bubble and have not been paying attention to the Mets these past two weeks so their painful struggles have been a mere blip in my periphery. Today I realized I would have to actually sit down and watch the game, but then my favorite beach volleyball team was going for gold so I figured I could easily flip between the two. By the time the match was over and I flipped back to the Mets game they had done literally nothing. Pete Alonso made a nice play and umpire Bruce Dreckman was having a rough go at it behind home plate but that was pretty much all the action. But at least the Norwegians won the gold so congrats to them!
Before the game Luis Rojas trotted out a lineup missing its lefties since the Phillies started Ranger Suarez who was on a pitch count. Rojas’s reasoning was that his right-handed bats would get him a lead and they could go from there. Well that didn’t work and didn’t happen. The Mets had only two hits and starter Tylor Megill had one of them.
In fact, Megill was one of the few Mets having a good game up to that point. He was pitching a solid game and had one of the Mets precious few hits, however when it changed, it changed quickly when he ran out of gas in the fifth inning. Brad Miller lead off the inning with a home run, and Megill put two more runners on but also got two more outs. Rojas tried to coax his starter through the inning but they all got burned when Odubel Herrera blasted a three-run home run to give the Phillies a 4-0 lead.
It remained that way until Yennsy Díaz gave up yet another home run to Miller to extend the Phillies lead in the eighth.
The Philadelphia bullpen has been so bad this year that even the Mets’ slumping offense was able to spring to life against it in the ninth. Michael Conforto, Jonathan Villar, and James McCann hit back to back to back solo home runs. Then, Kevin Pillar and Brandon Nimmo both got on base, and with one out that brought up Pete Alonso. Alonso swung three straight times at fastballs in the same location and sat down. Next up J.D. Davis failed similarly, getting beat on straight fastballs to end the game. At the end of the day added up to another loss to the division leaders as the Mets continue sliding in the other direction down the standings.
*illar of the game
Jonathan Villar blasted one of the three home runs hit in the ninth.
Box scores
Win Probability Added
Big Mets winner: Brandon Nimmo, +3.6% WPA
Big Mets loser: Pete Alonso -14.6% WPA
Mets pitchers: -12.9% WPA
Mets hitters: -37.% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Brandon Nimmo walk in ninth
Teh sux0rest play: Odubel Herrera home run in fifth