Tonight, Angels > Ghosts

As has been the case for most of this season, Kodai Senga was nothing short of impressive tonight. Over six and two-thirds innings, Senga had the ghost fork working like a charm, striking out ten, walking three, and giving up four hits, good for two earned runs.

Both of the Angels’ runs came in the top of the third. Ohtani opened the frame by hitting Nolan Schanuel with a pitch before Shohei Ohtani, not nursing his torn ligament, drilled a line drive to left, putting men on second and third with no outs. Old friend Brandon Drury hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Schanuel with the game’s first run. Mike Moustakas was up next, and singled home Ohtani.

The Mets would cut the lead to one in the bottom of the third, when Francisco Lindor hit a Patrick Sandoval pitch over the wall for his 24th home run of the season.

New York had their best scoring opportunity in the bottom of the seventh, which saw Sandoval leave the game for Matt Moore. Danny Mendick hit a ball deep into the right field corner for a lead-off double, which was followed up by a bobbled Jonathan Arauz bunt to put men on the corners with no outs. A Tim Locastro strikeout and a Brandon Nimmo fly out put two outs on the table, and an attempted tag-up by Mendick led to him being thrown out at the plate by a country mile.

The ninth inning saw the Angels extend their lead after Sam Coonrod put two on base before Schanuel flicked his bat at a Brooks Raley sweeper which fell for a base hit, scoring Hunter Renfroe and putting the Braves up by two going into the bottom of the ninth.

With two outs, Arauz slapped a ball the other way to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Daniel Vogelbach. A foul-tipped, but caught, third strike ended the game, 3-1.

The Mets have lost three in a row and, with Carlos Carrasco and David Peterson going for the rest of the weekend, it looks like that streak may continue.

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What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Jonathan Arauz, +11.4% WPA
Big Mets loser: Brandon Nimmo, -31.7% WPA
Mets pitchers: +6.1% WPA
Mets hitters: -56.1% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Arauz’s sacrifice bunt which led to an error, +14.2% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Shohei Ohtani’s third inning double, -12.3% WPA