SAN DIEGO — After feasting on underperforming competition or bad teams for the last two-plus weeks, the Mets faced a big boy Thursday and were promptly knocked down, but not without a fight.
The hit parade of the last several days stopped and Taijuan Walker’s performance was among his shakiest of the season in the Mets’ 4-3 loss to the Padres at Petco Park to begin a four-game series.
The Mets, who lost for the second time in three games, wasted late scoring opportunities. Most notably they couldn’t deliver in the ninth after Tomas Nido’s leadoff pinch-hit single against Mark Melancon and Jose Peraza’s ensuing walk. An inning earlier, Billy McKinney hit a ball off the right-field fence for an RBI triple and may have had a shot at an inside-the-park homer, but received a stop sign from third-base coach Gary DiSarcina. McKinney was left stranded.
“We created our chances,” manager Luis Rojas said. “For us to create those situations and not come through with the big hit, it’s another tough one. … You can go back and revisit a lot of things that happened in the game like I was just doing in my office and I am proud that the guys battled.”
On a night Jonathan Villar (right hamstring tightness) was unavailable and Pete Alonso received a rest from starting, a precautionary measure, after starting three straight games off the injured list, the Mets managed just six hits.
Walker lasted five innings and surrendered four runs, three earned, on seven hits and four walks over five innings before Rojas turned the game over to Jacob Barnes and Aron Loup, who combined for three scoreless innings. It marked only the second time this season that Walker surrendered more than two earned runs in a start. Rojas stuck with Walker for a season-high 104 pitches because the Mets’ bullpen was thin following two straight games at Arizona in which it was overextended.
“It definitely wasn’t my best stuff today,” Walker said. “I had to grind through it. I was all over the place.”
The Mets rallied against Melancon in the ninth, putting runners on first and second with nobody out. But the rally died as Travis Blankenhorn hit into a fielder’s choice and Kevin Pillar ended the game with a double-play grounder.
Rojas said he never considered using Blankenhorn to bunt.
“We wanted him swinging there,” Rojas said. “He’s a kid known for a little bit of his power, especially against right-handed pitchers.”
McKinney’s two-out RBI triple off the right-field fence in the eighth gave the Mets renewed hope as they sliced the Padres’ lead to 4-3. DiSarcina held McKinney at third — Rojas said he probably would have been out at the plate — and Brandon Drury was then retired to strand the tying run at third.
Rojas found just the right spot for Alonso in the sixth, sending up the slugger with the bases loaded and one out against lefty Tim Hill. But Alonso, who delivered a go-ahead RBI single in the ninth inning a day earlier to help the Mets escape victorious from Arizona, grounded into an inning-ending double play to keep the Padres’ lead at 4-2.
The Mets didn’t show life against Yu Darvish until the sixth, when James McCann continued his torrid stretch with a two-run homer that got the Mets on the board. The homer was McCann’s second in as many games and third since last Saturday. He entered on a 9-for-19 (.474) rampage.
Darvish, who dominated through the first five innings, never survived the sixth. After the McCann homer, he plunked Dominic Smith and was removed from the game. Over 5¹/₃ innings he allowed two earned runs on four hits with five strikeouts and one walk.
Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a two-run homer in the third that provided the game’s first scoring. Tatis’ ball hit inside Mason Williams’ glove as he reached above the fence and popped out as he descended. The homer was Tatis’ 17th of the season, tying him with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Ronald Acuna Jr. for the MLB lead.
“It just came out of my glove when I impacted the wall,” Williams said. “It’s just a play I should make.”
Darvish’s fourth-inning double — his second hit of the game — helped the Padres take a 3-0 lead. Jurickson Profar delivered an RBI single for the run, after Walker had walked Victor Caratini with one out to begin the rally.
Walker walked Manny Machado to begin the inning and then retired Jake Cronenworth before Tatis — the NL Player of the Month for May — connected. Tatis had missed Wednesday’s game against the Cubs with oblique discomfort.
The Mets should have escaped the fifth inning without a run scoring, but got sloppy. First, Drury committed a throwing error on Wil Myers’ grounder to third, leaving Tatis safe at second. After both runners advanced on a ground out, Walker buried a breaking ball in front of the plate that bounced beyond McCann for a wild pitch, allowing Tatis to race home with the Padres’ fourth run.
Darvish didn’t allow a hit until the fifth, when Williams with two outs singled off Cronenworth’s glove at first base. Peraza followed with a single to put runners on the corners, but Darvish retired Walker to end the threat.