Just Mets

The Mets were defeated by the Rays by the score of 5-4 on Saturday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. Here are my takeaways from the loss…

Out of sync.

This was not one of Noah Syndergaard’s finest outings, to say the least.

He was erratic with all of his pitches, as he had no command of any of his fastball, change-up and curveball. He needed 38 pitches in the first inning as he handed back a 3-0 lead the Mets gave him to put the Mets behind 4-3. He allowed a two-run home run to Grady Sizemore, and a two-run single to Kevin Kiermaier thanks mostly to falling behind in the count with his off-speed, and failing to make quality pitches in the strike zone when behind in the count.

He then seemed to figure things out starting in the second inning, as he started to find that crispness with his curveball. But, he never really found his fastball, as he was consistently missing off the outside edge to the left-handed hitters.

In the fourth inning, he walked John Jaso to leadoff the frame. He then stole second, reached third on a wild pitch, and then scored on what should have been the third out on a routine ground ball to shortstop off the bat of Evan Longoria, but Ruben Tejada couldn’t get the handle and Longoria reached which allowed Jaso to score the go-ahead run, a lead the Rays would not relinquish.

The play from Tejada just had to be made, but he took a circular route on the slow groundball and then had to double clutch before getting the throw off. By then, it was too late, and the deciding run came across.

It happens, and fortunately Syndergaard was able to at least keep the club in the game for a few innings. With the way his night was going, Syndergaard was fortunate to allow only five runs in four innings.

The Mets bats started out hot, but the bats went cold.

With the rebuilt offense and how in-sync they’ve been lately, the Mets can now sustain an off-night from their starting pitcher. It’s really the first clunker the Mets have gotten from a starting pitcher since the Mets acquired Yoenis Cespedes ahead of the trade deadline, so it was the first true test for the offense and their ability to mitigate a situation like this.

Early on, their offense was relentless, and they got a huge night from Curtis Granderson who slugged two solo home runs as part of their early-game exhibition.

They put up a three-spot in the first thanks to Granderson’s leadoff homer and a two-run double from Lucas Duda. After the Mets fell behind, they tied the game 4-4 in the second inning with another blast from Granderson.

But after the second inning, the bats went dead and they couldn’t mount any kind of attack against Nathan Karns and the Tampa Bay bullpen. They had their chances, however, as they had two baserunners in the third, one in the fourth, two in the fifth, and one in the sixth, but they couldn’t get any of them in. The Mets were then retired in order in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings, which closed the door on the Mets on Saturday.

A frustrating loss.

This kind of loss is frustrating only because they had a three run lead right from the beginning in this one, and they blew it and lost. Sure, the Mets can’t win them all, and Syndergaard isn’t going to be lights out every time out. But this feels like a game the Mets could have and probably should have won but didn’t.

It happens. The Mets just need to win the series in their rubber game on Sunday.

Other notes from Saturday:

Granderson’s leadoff home run on Saturday was his sixth of the season.

Syndergaard allowed more than three runs for only the third time in 16 starts for the Mets this season.

Syndergaard fell to 0-5 with a 4.78 ERA in eight starts on the road.

Travis d’Arnaud went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts on Saturday – he’s 4-for-22 with five strikeouts since returning from the disabled list.

The Mets struck out 15 times on Saturday night.

Sean Gilmartin and Carlos Torres combined for four innings of scoreless relief.