Mets fall to Mariners for first series loss of season
Mets relief pitcher Chasen Shreve watches the flight of the solo home run by the Mariners' Julio Rodriguez during the sixth inning of an MLB game at Citi Field on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Which was more unlikely? That the Mets wouldn’t lose a series for the first time until mid-May? Or that Seattle would be the team that finally took a series from them?
The Mariners just don’t play the Mets too often — not since 2017. And they had never been to Citi Field, which opened in 2009.
But the Mariners became the first team in 11 tries to take a 2022 series from the Mets with an 8-7 win before 38,476 on Sunday.
The Mets had been 9-0-1 but lost two of three to the Mariners, who hammered a pair of long home runs against Mets relievers in the seventh, took an 8-5 lead into the ninth and withstood another furious Mets rally.
The Mets went down fighting, scoring twice in the ninth to make it a one-run game. They were set up for one of their patented improbable comebacks with runners on second and third and one out, but Starling Marte struck out for the second out against righthanded slider specialist Diego Castillo.
After an intentional walk to Francisco Lindor loaded the bases, Pete Alonso struck out on a 3-and-2 checked swing called by first-base umpire Chad Whitson to end it. “I didn’t think [I swung],” Alonso said. “But after a while, kind of thinking about it, I thought maybe I went a little too far.”
Of dropping a series for the first time, manager Buck Showalter said: “I think it really puts it in perspective how hard it is when you’re playing against the best players in the world. Winning over nine innings is hard. I think our guys appreciate how hard it is to do and how it can ebb and flow over the course of a season, so you try and keep a grip on reality and a sense of maturity about what reality is.”
The Mets rallied from a 4-1 deficit and took a 5-4 lead in the fourth on two-run triples by J.D. Davis and Brandon Nimmo against last year’s American League Cy Young Award winner, Robbie Ray (4-3).
Chasen Shreve (1-1), who had relieved an ineffective Carlos Carrasco (4 1⁄3 innings pitched, eight hits, four runs) in the fifth, stayed on for the sixth.
On Saturday night, Shreve gave up a tying three-run home run to Citi Field villain Jesse Winker in the Mets’ eventual 5-4 victory.
Oops. Shreve did it again on Sunday, giving up a tying home run by Julio Rodriguez leading off the sixth.
Four batters later, the once- impenetrable Drew Smith surrendered a two-run home run by No. 9 hitter Cal Raleigh to give the Mariners a 7-5 lead.
Raleigh, who came into the at-bat with two hits in 38 plate appearances this season, launched a moonshot that almost reached the Shea Bridge in right-centerfield.
Smith started the season with 12 scoreless appearances before allowing the go-ahead run on Friday in the eighth inning in a 2-1 Mariners win.
Julio Rodriguez’s RBI single off Joely Rodriguez in the seventh gave Seattle a three-run lead.
Ray and three relievers (including former Met Paul Sewald), retired 14 straight batters from the fourth until Eduardo Escobar tripled with one out in the ninth.
Sewald, who is still bitter after being let go by the Mets after going 1-14 with a 5.50 ERA here, taunted booing Mets fans by holding his hand up to his ear as he walked off the mound in the eighth.
After Escobar’s triple, Jeff McNeil singled to make it 8-6. Patrick Mazeika singled and Nimmo doubled home a run to make it 8-7 and knock out Drew Steckenrider, setting up the final sequence.
“That’s a good team over there,” Nimmo said. “I’m surprised by their record [16-19] because they fought us really, really well this weekend and they hit really well. Unfortunate to lose the first series of the year, but it’s probably going to happen. We got it out of the way and now we can move forward.”
After it was over, a large contingent of Mets left for Madison Square Garden to attend Rangers-Penguins Game 7.
Nimmo was asked if he had a prediction.
“No predictions,” he said. “Just looking forward to a good game and hopefully New York wins.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
