Taijuan Walker, Trevor May hurt in Mets' loss to Phillies
Mets starting pitcher Taijuan Walker throws during the first inning of a game against the Phillies on Monday in Philadelphia. Credit: AP
PHILADELPHIA — The Mets lost twice Monday night: 5-4 to the Phillies, plus Taijuan Walker and Trevor May to injuries.
Walker, their righthanded starter, exited after two perfect innings because of what he called right shoulder soreness. May, a key righthanded reliever, left during the eighth with discomfort in his right biceps/triceps, which he said is an annual issue for him.
Both pitchers will get MRIs on Tuesday and said they were optimistic that their problems aren’t serious. Walker acknowledged being “annoyed and frustrated,” a sentiment with which May agreed.
The game unraveled for the Mets as soon as May got hurt. The Phillies rallied for five runs in the eighth against May, Joely Rodriguez and Seth Lugo, sending the Mets to a second winnable loss in as many days.
Former Mets reliever Brad Hand recorded the save with a perfect ninth, striking out Brandon Nimmo to end it.
“This one hurts,” manager Buck Showalter said. “It’s unfortunate. We know when you got a good team down, you gotta finish them off. And we didn’t tonight.”
He added of his injured pitchers: “I heard some good things from them afterward, but you don’t really know until you get in there and let them [doctors] look at it.”
It is not clear if Walker’s irritation was related to his recent right knee soreness, which affected him during spring training, including prematurely ending his final exhibition outing last week. He had right knee surgery in January.
His shoulder started to improve before the game was over, he said, with strength tests backing that up.
“I didn’t feel right, so came out just to be safe,” said Walker, who struck out four of his six batters. “It’s already feeling better now.”
May said he usually encounters this upper-arm pseudo-soreness — his version of a dead arm — during camp. But after a spring training that lasted about half as long as usual, he experienced and treated it over the past week until he couldn’t pitch through it during his second appearance of the year.
His grimace upon throwing his final pitch stemmed from dissatisfaction, not an abnormal amount of pain, he said.
“It’s only been four weeks since we reported to spring training,” he said. “I think back to how I feel four weeks into spring usually, and it lines up. Hopefully that’s all it is.”
May added, on the subject of an MRI: “You want to rule things out . . . I’m completely on board. Usually when you’re getting imaging, it looks like it’s terrible. But imaging is to give you information. That’s what we’re trying to do. I’m a big information guy. I like to know what’s going on.”
During the game-deciding rally, J.T. Realmuto hit a two-run home run off Rodriguez. Lugo — who entered with two outs, nobody on base and the Mets up by one — allowed a tying two-out double by Rhys Hoskins and a tiebreaking double by Didi Gregorius.
“It wasn’t his night,” Showalter said.
The Mets took a three-run lead in the first inning after lefthander Ranger Suarez (2 2⁄3 innings, three runs) and third baseman Alec Bohm butchered what could have been a routine double-play grounder hit by Starling Marte. That was the first of Bohm’s three throwing errors on seven chances in the first three innings.
Lefthander David Peterson provided four shutout innings in relief of Walker, scattering three hits and two walks to keep the Phillies’ dangerous-looking lineup in check. He struck out three in his first action in 10 days and his first major-league game since June 30 before an oblique strain and broken foot ended his season.
He was on the roster only because Edwin Diaz is on the bereavement list after the death of his grandfather.
“I try not to let what happened at the end overshadow what a great job Pete did,” Showalter said. “If we had won that game, it would’ve been on Pete’s shoulders.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
