The New York Mets Suffer a Crippling Loss

It has been a frustrating few days for the Mets. With them on the west coast, the Braves are usually done with their game when the Mets play. With the way Atlanta is playing, it means New York has to win just to keep pace with the red hot Braves. It is depressing when the best case scenario from a game is to just not lose ground.

Unfortunately for New York, they did lose ground last night.

The Mets dropped game two in Arizona. They now sit four games back in the wild card race. It was a very frustrating game for the Mets.

Luis Severino was on the mound. He was not at his best. Severino threw his offspeed a lot more than usual. The right hander did not have his good fastball and he noticed early. His velocity on his fastball was down and he was not locating it consistently. Severino mixed in his changeup a lot more than usual. He threw it 20% of the time. His yearly average is around 8%.

Severino’s sinker is usually his second most prominent pitch. Yesterday, it was his fourth most used pitch.

The Diamondbacks scored one in the second, two in the third, and one more in the fourth. In the third inning, Severino was drilled by a ground ball. He stayed in the game but it was clear that he was not able to push off the foot where he was hit. Severino battled, despite the injury and not having his A stuff. He ended up pitching 4.2 IP, allowing four runs and striking out nine.

The Mets bats woke up in the fifth inning. They already had two runs in the inning when Harrison Bader smacked a two out, two run home run to tie the game at 4-4.

Starling Marte manufactured a run in the sixth. He bunted for a hit, stole second, got to third on a groundout and scored on a shallow sacrifice fly, deking the catcher with a great slide.

New York held the lead until the eighth, but did not add any runs. Phil Maton started the eighth with a walk but then retired the next two batters.

Carlos Mendoza has been criticized for not turning to Edwin Diaz early enough. Yesterday, Mendoza went to Diaz in the eighth. The move turned out to be a disaster. Diaz could not find the strike zone. Throughout the year he has had outings where he cannot throw his fastball for a strike. Yesterday fell into that category. Diaz walked the Diamondbacks’ eight and nine hitters to start his day. Diaz then hung a slider to Corbin Carroll who got all of it for a go-ahead grand slam. Diaz is now responsible for the loss in two of the Mets’ last three games.

The Mets are in a very tough position. It is not a fun place to be. They have to keep winning and hope the teams in front of them eventually falter.