Garrett Richards arrived at Citi Field on Tuesday with 13 walks, 12 strikeouts and a 6.48 ERA through his first four starts for the Red Sox this season.
The free-swinging Mets welcomed him with a parade of whiffs.
Richards struck out 10, walked none and induced 19 swings-and-misses as a slumping Mets offense lacked a punch in a 2-1 loss to the Red Sox.
The Mets (9-9) tallied seven hits off Richards across seven innings, but Jeff McNeil’s solo home run was the only one that hurt. They had two hits apiece in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings and came away with nothing to show for it as their inconsistent bats fell flat to open a two-game series against the Red Sox (15-9).
“Big league pitchers are good. Richards, he’s got nasty stuff,” McNeil said. “He pitched incredible today. They’re tough to hit when they’re on. We just gotta battle and grind and do anything we can to scrape a few runs [together] on days that they’re on.”
David Peterson turned in a quality start, bouncing back from a short outing last week against the Cubs to toss six solid innings and give up just two runs. But he was charged with the tough-luck loss.
The Red Sox broke a 1-1 tie off Peterson in his final inning of the night. Enrique Hernandez led off the top of the sixth by slicing a line drive to the right-field corner for a double. He came around to score on Rafael Devers’ flare to left field as the Red Sox took the lead.
“It sucks making a good pitch and the guy flicking it out there like that,” Peterson said. “It’s happened to me a good amount recently. It’s not a good feeling at all giving up hits like that. Giving up hits in general is not a good feeling, but something like that where it just falls in, it’s frustrating but you gotta get back on the mound and make the next pitch.”
Peterson did that, but the Mets’ offense couldn’t hold up its end of the bargain. After McNeil’s solo shot in the second inning, they were starved for a big hit that never came.
The offensive struggles reached a boiling point for the crowd of 7,917 in the eighth inning, when they gave Francisco Lindor a smattering of boos after he grounded out to end his 1-for-4 night. The shortstop is now batting .212 (14-for-66) on the season.
McNeil missed his chance in the fourth inning, striking out to end the inning with runners on the corners, while J.D. Davis left two runners on when he flew out to end the sixth.
The Mets also wasted a pair of singles in the fifth inning by running into outs on the bases. James McCann led off and was thrown out trying to stretch a single to left field into a double. Kevin Pillar later singled with two outs but then was caught stealing second.
“I��m OK with guys being aggressive if it’s the moment to be aggressive,” manager Luis Rojas said. “The first out at second base, it’s a play that’s gonna hurt you throughout the inning. I think it hurt us in the outcome of the game. It’s nice that you want to play a one-speed type of game, but we also gotta be smart with the decisions we make in a game.”
Rojas also pointed to the Mets’ recurring issues with runners in scoring position (1-for-3 Tuesday) as “still haunting us” from last season.
“We just gotta put it all together,” McNeil said. “We need to get hot and start scoring some runs for our pitchers. They’ve been doing a tremendous job and we need to support them.”