Met misery from the jump

If I told you that the Mets scored a run on a bases loaded walk, you’d likely think that this was a hard-fought contest, where neither team could afford the risk of leaving a ball over the plate and so, to save a big inning, the Mets grission’d out a walk to bring in a run.

Instead, it was simply the final cherry on top of a real garbage game, which the Mets lost 9-1.

The Mets’ night started off rough, with Carlos Carrasco putting four of the first five men to face him on base and, subsequently, all of them scoring. A blown double play nearly got Carrasco out of trouble, but replay overturned it. A Kyle Tucker home run was the final indignity of the inning, and put the Mets deep in the hole before even coming to bat.

Framber Valdez kept the Mets off the board all night, stranding runners on base in three of the first four innings, letting a James McCann double play and a JD Davis strikeout get him out of two different jams.

This marks the second time in a week that Carrasco has struggled against the Astros, but after his initial four-run first inning, Carrasco settled down, allowing just one more run on a Jake Meyers single in the fourth. After an infield single by Jeremy Pena to lead off the top of the fifth, Carrasco’s night was over.

Chasen Shrieve entered the game, and promptly gave up a pair of two-run home runs to Yordan Alvarez and Yuli Gurriel, putting the Astros up 9-0. Trevor Williams and Adonis Medina kept the damage to just those runs, but the dye was cast.

A ninth inning rally led to McCann walking to force in a run, but newest Met Ender Inciarte grounded out to end the game.

Tomorrow at 1:10pm Taijuan Walker will toe the rubber for the Mets against Justin Verlander. The Mets will attempt to go one game without a home run(s) by Alvarez. Thankfully, this is the end of the Mets’ season series against Houston.

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Box scores

ESPN

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Win Probability Added

Fangraphs.com

What’s WPA?

Big winner: None

Big loser: Carlos Carrasco, -32.6% WPA

Total pitcher WPA: -36.9% WPA

Total batter WPA: -13.1%WPA

Teh aw3s0mest play: Starling Marte’s 4th inning double, +3.3% WPA

Teh sux0rest play: KyleTucker’s three-run dinger, -17.2%WPA