The Mets dropped their third consecutive series on Sunday, dropping another 1-0 contest to the Nationals at Citi Field. Here are my takeaways from the loss…
The Mets middle infield bit them, again.
And it all happened in the first inning.
This time, it was Ruben Tejada who couldn’t turn the first double play when he couldn’t get the handle of the ball at the bag in the middle of a 4-6-3 double play. Then, Daniel Murphy played back on a ball to him at third, which resulted in a slow turn of a double play. That allowed Ryan Zimmerman to come up and dunk a single the other way to plate a run, and that’s all they needed.
The Mets offense is non-existent right now.
Its been 18 innings since the Mets scored a run late Friday night. They didn’t even give themselves much of a chance today – their best shot came in the eighth inning when Lucas Duda was up with two runners in scoring position and one out. But he struck out on a pitch out of the zone against the lefty Matt Thornton, then Michael Cuddyer followed with a strike out on a pitch outside of the zone, on and that was the end of the Mets day.
Runs are going to be at a premium between these two clubs. It’s clear. Both had a lot of trouble scoring in this series, particularly in the final three games of the series. That further underscores the need to execute when chances are there, make productive outs, and do the little things to win.
The Mets did not do that for the most part today and in this series in general. Its been a very, very disturbing trend over the last ten days as well.
Hat tip to Dillon Gee, Alex Torres.
Gee really pitched well today. He took the loss, but probably shouldn’t have thanks to the two bunked double play opportunities in the first inning. He walked a lot of batters but he had a ton of movement on his two seamer today, probably a little more than he would’ve liked. Even so, he pitched his way out of the jams and found a way to get into the sixth inning, when Alex Torres put out a bases loaded, nobody out fire Gee had started.
That’s three consecutive starts in which Gee has pitched well enough to at least show he can be a serviceable starting pitcher for this club, or somebody else. He’s allowed four earned runs in 19 2/3 innings over his last three starts, which potentially has some meaning for both he and the Mets going forward.
Other notes from Sunday:
Torres, Erik Goeddel, and Jeurys Familia combined for four innings of scoreless relief work on Sunday – they allowed three earned runs in 11 2/3 innings in this series.
The Mets went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left seven on-base.
For the first time since 1973, the Mets lost 1-0 for the second consecutive day to the same opponent.
Juan Lagares had two more hits today – he’s hitting .457 over his last nine games.
The Mets have lost seven of their last ten games following their 11-game winning streak.
Just Mets 