Mets’ comeback comes up short against Diamondbacks

They can’t all be wins, even when the opponent is one of the weakest teams in baseball. On a delightful Saturday afternoon at Citi Field, the Mets were unable to score early, made things interesting late, and ultimately came up short in a loss to the Diamondbacks.

Arizona’s starter was Zac Gallen, a pitcher with a pretty good major league track record who pitched four scoreless innings. Mets starter Carlos Carrasco was even more effective, though, throwing five scoreless innings of his own. That turned the rest of the game into a battle of the bullpens, a scenario that is not ideal for the Mets as currently constructed.

Joely Rodríguez threw a scoreless sixth, but he surrendered a bit of a bloop single to the only batter he faced to start the seventh. And Seth Lugo came in and looked very bad, serving up a one-out, two-run home run to Sergio Alcántara, a career .196/.289/.337 hitter. Lugo proceeded to give up one more run after that, too, issuing a two-out walk to Daulton Varsho and a double to Ketel Marte that brought Varsho home.

Unfortunately, that was just enough for Arizona. Starling Marte made things interesting with an absolute blast of a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth. But with one out and Francisco Lindor drawing a walk after Marte’s home run, Pete Alonso grounded into an inning-ending, rally-killing double play.

Trevor May had thrown a scoreless eighth and Adam Ottavino a scoreless—somehow—ninth. But the Mets’ bats were rendered useless by Arizona closer Mark Melancon in the bottom of the ninth, leaving the team from Queens looking for a win to take the series in the finale this afternoon.

Box scores

ESPN
MLB.com

Win Probability Added

FanGraphs

What’s WPA?

Big winners: Carlos Carrasco, +25.8% WPA
Big losers: Pete Alonso, -21.5% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -3.9% WPQ
Total batter WPA: -46.1% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Starling Marte hits a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth, +13.8% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Sergio Alcantara hits a two-run home run in the top of the seventh, -32.9% WPA

SB Nation GameThreads

Amazin’ Avenue
AZ Snake Pit