The Mets seemed destined to pick up their third straight win, but the bullpen allowed seven runs in three innings as New York fell to the Reds, 9-6 on Saturday afternoon.
Saturday’s loss overshadowed a bounce-back start from Luis Severino and an impressive offensive output from backup catcher Omar Narvaez.
Here are the takeaways…
-The eighth will be the inning talked about in Mets world after Saturday’s loss, but the game began its unraveling an inning earlier.
After Severino pitched five solid innings, manager Carlos Mendoza had to rely on a small number of relievers to get the final 12 outs. With most of the bullpen used two days in a row, he first went to Jake Diekman. Diekman gave up a hit and hit a batter with two outs before Stuart Fairchild singled home a run. A double steal allowed Spencer Steer to score from third and cut the Mets lead to 5-4. Narvaez should have allowed the runner to steal second, but the throw-through allowed the run to score.
Yohan Ramirez, returning from his two-game suspension after throwing at Rhys Hoskins, pitched a 1-2-3 seventh but the eighth is when things unraveled. After a walk to Candelario, and a balk, Ramirez struck out Jake Fraley but the pitch went through the legs of Narvaez allowing Fraley to reach first and Bubba Thompson — pinch-running — to reach third. Elly De La Cruz hit an “excuse me” single past Brett Baty to tie the game at 5-5. And then, Spencer Steer launched a sinker over the plate 400 feet for a three-run homer to put the Reds up 8-5.
After more walks, misplays on the field and hits, the Reds would scratch across another run. Ramirez wound up throwing 53 pitches in his two innings (41 in the eighth) as Mendoza asked the kid to eat the pummeling to save the bullpen for Sunday’s game.
-Severino, coming off a rough first game in a Mets uniform, was very solid in his second start of the season.
In his first start, Severino pitched five innings and gave up three runs while striking out six but gave up a career-high 11 hits. In this one, it looked like it would be more of the same, especially early.
In the second inning, the Mets defense did Severino no favors. A Jeimer Candelario fly ball to left field fell for a double when Tyrone Taylor lost it in the sun. Jeff McNeil then booted a hard-hit ball from De La Cruz with the infield in, which allowed Candelario to score from third and put the Reds up 1-0.
That same inning saw Severino get a bit rattled as the first run was followed by a hit and two walks to load the bases. Severino walked in the Reds’ second run before getting a strikeout to limit the damage.
After the Mets took the lead, Severino was a new pitcher. He stopped nipping and looking for the edges and filled the strike zone with strikes, and it was to his benefit. While he wasn’t very efficient with his pitch count (99 pitches/63 strikes) but he got through five innings, giving up three hits, one earned run, walking two and striking out seven batters.
-The Mets’ offensive struggles so far this season have been well-documented but they broke out in a big way in the fourth. Down by two runs, Baty led off with a single, which was followed by a Starling Marte walk. McNeil was hit by a pitch with one out to load the bases. Harrison Bader struck out swinging and it looked like the Mets would not push across a run when Narvaez hit a two-run single to tie the game. Brandon Nimmo followed with a double to score two more and put the Mets up 4-2.
Taylor made up for his outfield blunder earlier in the game by smoking a double off the left-center field wall to score Marte and give the Mets a 5-2 lead.
-Nimmo, returning to the lineup as the DH after missing Friday’s game with a hamstring issue, broke his 0-for-17 slump with a single in the third inning. With the aforementioned double, Nimmo finished 2-for-4 with a walk and two RBI.
Narvaez gave Francisco Alvarez the day off after the night game and it paid off. Narvaez was hitless going into Saturday’s game and finished going 3-for-4 with two RBI. Baty finished 2-for-5 with an RBI single in the ninth to give the Mets their sixth run of the game.
Francisco Lindor went 0-for-5 and is hitless in his last 23 at-bats.
Game MVP: Spencer Steer
This space was saved for Narvaez, but after the eighth inning, it had to go to Steer whose three-run home run put the nail into any chance the Mets had to salvage this win.
The outfielder finished 2-for-3.
Highlights
What’s Next…
The Mets look for the series win when they complete their three-game set with the Reds on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:40 p.m.
Sean Manaea (0-0, 0.00 ERA) looks for his first win as a Met when he takes on Andrew Abbott (0-0, 3.38 ERA) on Sunday.
Source Agencies
