Mets sink to new low with missed opportunities in loss to Reds
CINCINNATI — The Mets broke normal protocol and traveled during Monday’s day off instead of immediately after the previous day’s game in part because the players don’t exactly love this city.
That’s off the field.
On the field, the locale doesn’t matter: the Mets are spreading fertilizer everywhere — at least it smells that way.
On Tuesday they combined another rough pitching performance with two giant missed opportunities in a 7-6 loss to the Reds at Great American Ball Park.
The loss was the Mets’ 12th in 15 games and pushed them two games below .500 for the first time this season.
The Mets managed to turn it into a game late, after falling into a six-run hole, but never got the hit they needed in the late innings with the bases loaded.
“Are we happy that we lost? We’re not — we feel it, for sure,” Francisco Lindor said. “However, there’s things in this game that we have to appreciate and everybody fought. Everybody kept their guard up.”
With Max Scherzer scratched from the start because of neck spasms, David Peterson received a recall from Triple-A Syracuse and reminded the Mets why he was recently demoted in the first place.
The Reds knocked out the left-hander in the fourth and piled on against Stephen Nogosek, the latest Mets reliever to get jumped in the middle innings.
The missed opportunities came in the seventh and eighth innings, when the Mets failed to capitalize on chances with the bases loaded.
In the seventh, the Mets loaded the bases with nobody out after Pete Alonso’s homer sliced the Reds’ lead to 7-3, but Mark Canha hit into a double play.
In the eighth, the Mets loaded the bases with two outs after Lindor’s two-run homer, but Luis Guillorme (pinch-hitting for Canha) struck out against Alexis Diaz.
Canha said he wasn’t surprised Guillorme was used to pinch hit for him in the eighth.
“The at-bat in the seventh inning was pretty bad,” Canha said. “It’s the worst thing you can do in that situation and I killed the rally, so you can’t keep blowing opportunities and not come through and expect to get more and more opportunities. Your opportunities are going to shrink.”
Francisco Alvarez was the Mets’ big offensive threat with two homers. It was the first multi-homer game of the rookie’s major league career.
The night began to unravel on the Mets during a fifth inning that included Buck Showalter’s first ejection in his two seasons managing the club.
Showalter got tossed after arguing that Wil Myers interfered with Lindor at second base as the shortstop attempted to field a grounder.
On the play Myers appeared to grab Lindor’s glove as the ball dropped. Lindor indicated he wasn’t sure if Myers grabbed his glove, but said the runner should have been called out regardless.
“As I went to cover the base and go get the ball, [Myers] hit the ball,” Lindor said. “In that case the ball was never in my glove, so to me there were two plays in that situation: Interference because he’s in my lane and secondly the ball hit him. [The umpires] didn’t see either of them. It’s an unfortunate situation.”
Showalter said there were “about three ways” the umpires could have gotten the call right, but didn’t. TJ Friedl followed with a two-run triple against Nogosek and Jonathan India’s sacrifice fly extended the Reds’ lead to 7-1.
“We had opportunities for the [call at second base] not to matter, but we just didn’t pitch very well,” Showalter said. “Peterson was struggling.”
Peterson lasted 3 ¹/₃ innings and allowed four earned runs on seven hits with four strikeouts and two walks.
The left-hander’s disappointing season continued with a fourth straight start in which he allowed at least four earned runs and his ERA increased to 7.68.
Tyler Stephenson’s RBI single in the first inning gave the Reds their first run.
Peterson managed to avoid further trouble by striking out Myers with runners on second and third.
The Mets’ deficit extended to 3-0 in the second.
Peterson walked Kevin Newman to begin the inning and allowed a single to Friedl before India’s ground out brought in a run. Nick Senzel’s single added another run.
India’s RBI double in the fourth produced the Reds’ fourth run against Peterson.
“I got behind guys early,” Peterson said. “I wasn’t efficient with my pitches and my pitch count got in trouble and they were able to find some holes.”
