Mets' bats can't capitalize on Walker Buehler's early ejection in loss to Red Sox
The Mets' Juan Soto flips his bat after striking out against Boston Red Sox pitcher Walker Buehler during the first inning of a game at Fenway Park on Tuesday in Boston. Credit: AP/Charles Krupa
BOSTON — You could have been excused if you tuned in to watch the Mets take on the Red Sox Tuesday night and erroneously believed it to be a replay.
Like Monday, they got a gutsy, if not immaculate performance from their starter. Like Monday, they didn’t hit a home run — a streak that’s now extended to six games. Like Monday, they got plenty of traffic but failed to execute with runners in scoring position. And, like Monday, they lost — this time, 2-0 at Fenway Park, marking the first time they’ve lost three in a row this season. They’ve also dropped five of six.
The Mets failed to capitalize on starter Walker Buehler’s third-inning ejection, and managed very little against a carousel of six relievers, going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, and leaving seven on base. They’re 5-for-44 (.114) with runners in scoring position over the last six games and have left 43 men on base. It’s also their longest homerless streak since a six-game stretch in July 2015; they’re 7-14 when they don’t go yard this year.
“We’re going through it, no doubt about it,” Carlos Mendoza said, adding he would consider shuffling the lineup. “We’re having a hard time putting guys on consistently and when we do get those guys on, we’re having a hard time getting them in . . . It happens. We’ve got to continue to fight. We’ve got to continue to work.”
Clay Holmes pitched six innings and allowed two runs and four hits with three walks and five strikeouts; all the damage he allowed came in the fifth, courtesy of solo homers from Carlos Narvaez and Rafael Devers.
The Red Sox threatened (and threatened) in the first and second, but Holmes wriggled himself out of a jam with two strikeouts in the former, and Brandon Nimmo bailed him out in the latter. Holmes hit Nick Sogard with a pitch to lead off the second and then allowed a sharp single to Trevor Story. Both were sacrificed over for Narvaez, who hit a moderately deep fly ball to left. Sogard tagged up but Nimmo lasered a perfect throw, hitting Francisco Alvarez on the fly to get Sogard at home for the 7-7-2 double play.
Things got spicy in the top of the third though when, with one out, Francisco Lindor on, and Juan Soto at the plate, Buehler threw a 1-0 cutter that was fully in the strike zone, but called a ball by home plate umpire Mike Estabrook. The two exchanged words — including a very choice one by Buehler — and Estabrook immediately tossed the righty after 52 pitches (he had yet to allow a hit). Manager Alex Cora was also tossed, and had to be stopped from a physical altercation by first-base umpire Laz Diaz.
Reliever Brennan Bernadino eventually walked Soto but, continuing their unfortunate trend, the Mets got nothing out of it. Pete Alonso grounded out, moving the runners over, and Nimmo hit into a tough break — a long drive to the deep warning track in center that was caught despite a high hit probability.
“We’ve run into some bad luck but there’s also a process to it that you can always try to tweak and improve in,” Nimmo said. “It’s a cat and mouse game between us. They know our strengths. We know their strengths. They know our weaknesses and we know theirs. So you’re trying to execute on both sides.”
The Mets’ luck seemed to get even worse in the third, after Mark Vientos led off the inning with a double. He advanced to third on Jeff McNeil’s ground out, but Alvarez hit a slow grounder to second that Vientos had to hold up on, and Brett Baty hit a 99.9 mph shot up the first-base line that was snagged by a diving Sogard.
The Red Sox got their two runs when Narvaez hit an absolute moonshot over the Green Monster: He turned on Holmes’ 1-and-0 sinker inside on the hands and drove a high-arching shot 366-feet to left to lead off the fifth. Two batters later, Devers thought it was so nice, he did it twice — blasting an 0-and-1, knee-high slider to the exact same spot.
“The sinker, it got in, but it was up obviously,” Holmes said. “I think with Devers, I was probably testing my luck there with the sliders . . . and he’s a good hitter and put a good swing on the pitch there. It’s a tight game. I can’t really afford those mistakes.”
Nimmo, though, did keep things in perspective.
“This is a long time without losing three in a row,” Nimmo said. “Last year, it was the first three games, right? . . . I haven’t gone through a season where we haven’t gone through something like this at some point, whether it’s multiple points throughout the season, so I’m not worried.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
