Mets fall 10 games under .500 after blowing lead late against Giants
Pete Alonso watched the ball go over the fence and the Giants runners round the bases.
He put his hands on his knees and doubled over, as if exhausted, and maybe he was.
The Mets must be tired, and they surely are tired of losing like this.
Alonso made a key eighth-inning error, David Robertson followed by surrendering a go-ahead, three-run home run and the Mets absorbed one more gut-punch in a season of them — a 5-4 loss to the Giants that was witnessed at Citi Field by 30,116, who were enjoying a great Friday night, until it all went wrong.
The Mets (36-46) are a season-worst 10 games under .500. They finished with a 7-19 record in a disastrous June and were without one series victory in the month.
With a loss Saturday or Sunday, they would open July by losing another series.
Call it a June swoon or maybe a month of misery.
On June 1, the Mets held a wild-card spot and were 3 ½ games back in NL East. As the calendar turns to July, they are 18 ½ games back of the Braves in the division.
“Glad to see the month behind us now,” manager Buck Showalter said after his club lost for the 13th time in a game in which it held a lead in June. “Hopefully we can get something started in July.”
The latest blow, the fourth of their past five losses that came by one run, was particularly potent. The Mets were rolling, up 4-2 in the eighth inning, and had their best pitcher on the mound.
Showalter turned to Robertson because the 2-3-4 hitters in the Giants’ order were due up.
With one out, Joc Pederson grounded sharply to Alonso, who knocked the ball down. Alonso recovered and rushed a throw to Robertson, who was covering first base. But Robertson couldn’t stab the errant toss.
“I rushed the throw to D-Rob when I didn’t need to,” said Alonso, who added that this stretch is the most frustrating of his five-year career. “My internal clock was going a little faster.”
With Pederson on, Robertson walked former Met J.D. Davis before rookie catcher Patrick Bailey crushed a home run to center in a moment that would have been stunning if the Mets had not perfected this kind of loss: They make a mistake and immediately get pounded for it.
“It sucks. There’s no other way to put it,” said Robertson, who otherwise has been excellent this season. “We’re trying. It seems like nothing’s going our way.
“Don’t get the big outs when we need them. Don’t get the big hits when we need them. Don’t make quality pitches when we need to. There are a lot of things that are just going wrong.”
The Mets went quietly in the eighth, but got the potential winning run to the plate in the ninth after Luis Guillorme walked. But pinch-runner Starling Marte was thrown out trying to steal second base — by Bailey, apparently a Mets killer — before Brandon Nimmo struck out, ruining a night that had begun with such promise.
The Mets wasted five solid, two-run innings from Carlos Carrasco.
They wasted a nice catch by Nimmo, who jumped against the wall in right-center field to take away extra bases from LaMonte Wade Jr.
They wasted the beginnings of encouraging signs from Jeff McNeil, who had a pair of RBI doubles down the left-field line, and further encouraging signs from Tommy Pham, who homered in the sixth inning.
The outward signs of frustration are growing. In the sixth inning, Alonso stepped up with two outs and McNeil on second. McNeil was stranded there as Alonso fouled out and slowly walked to the dugout.
When the ball was caught, Alsonso snapped his bat over a knee — on his second try. His first did not break the bat in half.
“I’m having technically, probably the worst month I’ve ever had in the big leagues,” said Alonso, who closed June 10-for-66 (.152) with four home runs after he missed 10 days with a left wrist injury. “Over the past five, six days, I’ve been relatively having decent at-bats. And then when I hit something hard, it just always seems to find a glove.
“I’ve just played really bad. Simple as that.”
For other clubs, such a crushing blow would rank among the worst of the season. For the 2023 Mets, it was just another Friday.
“This clubhouse isn’t giving up, that’s for sure,” Robertson said.
But it won’t be the players who throw up the white flag.
With each backbreaker in June, the Mets moved a bit closer to a possible July and August fire sale.
