In a three-and-a-half hour, back-and-forth affair, the Mets fell to the Astros, 10-8, to lose the three-game series in Houston.
Here are the takeaways…
1. Cristian Javier took the ball for Houston in the midst of another strong season on the mound. On Wednesday afternoon, however, the right-hander put himself in early trouble with a lack of command. Three straight Mets reached to start the game with two walks and a hit by pitch. Pete Alonso stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and no one out, but the slugger tapped a check-swing grounder back to the mound. Javier threw home to get the lead runner first Martin Maldonado appeared to overthrow first base and bring in a run. Instead, the umpiring crew ruled interference on Alonso for running out of the baseline, leading to a double play and runners returning to first and second. After Tommy Pham reached on the third walk of the inning, Jeff McNeil popped out to third to end the frame with no runs.
In the second inning, the Mets threatened again to lead off the frame. Daniel Vogelbach slapped a single to the opposite field and advanced to third on a Brett Baty single. For the third time in the game to that point, New York loaded the bases on a Brandon Nimmo walk. Starling Marte took advantage of a long at-bat and a series of foul balls, golfing a two-run double to the gap in left-center field to tie the game. Francisco Lindor followed with a sacrifice fly to right field to bring home Nimmo and put the Mets in front.
Vogelbach added insurance with an RBI double in the third inning to chase Javier in his shortest outing of the season. The right-hander went just 2.1 innings with five walks and four runs allowed. The Mets made an impact off of a quality starter who entered with a 7-1 record and a sub-three ERA.
2. The unorthodox start of the game continued in the bottom of the first. With Taylor Megill on the mound, the Astros plated two runs in an inning that included multiple wild pitches and a catcher’s interference call on Omar Narvaez that allowed Kyle Tucker to reach. Megill did bear down to limit the damage when Yainer Diaz rolled a double play ball to shortstop.
Megill escaped further trouble in the second when he stranded the bases loaded. In the third, however, the Astros struck back to tie the game at four on a single from Corey Julks. Like Javier, Megill was also lifted after 2.1 innings and charged with five runs when Dominic Leone surrendered a two-run opposite field homer to Chas McCormick that put the Astros in front, 6-4.
3. In the back-and-forth spirit of this matinee, New York quickly responded to tie the score as Vogelbach stayed hot with a two-run single. That score did not stand for long as Alex Bregman put Houston back in front on a bloop single to right. Diaz followed with a high-flying two-run home run into the Crawford Boxes to make the score 9-6 and chase Leone.
4. In the sixth, the middle of the New York order took control to bring the game within a run. Against Rafael Montero, Lindor doubled on a ball that missed a home run in right-center field by a few feet. Alonso then drilled a homer to left-center that left the bat at 114 miles per hour. The Mets nearly tied the game later in the inning, but a diving catch from Julks robbed Baty of a potential game-tying hit.
5. Josh Walker pitched well out of the bullpen but was forced to exit the game after taking a comebacker off the leg in the seventh inning. Adam Ottavino followed out of the bullpen to finish the inning, but allowed a run to score on Maldonado’s bunt that Ottavino corralled before glove flipping to Narvaez at home plate that was too high, which allowed Julks to sneak in just before the tag.
Against closer Ryan Pressly in the ninth inning, the Mets went down in order in a 10-8 win for Houston, who won the series two games out of three.
The back-and-forth game finished in just over three and a half hours with multiple unusual stat tallies, including 18 combined runs, 19 hits, 16 walks, four lead changes and two errors.
Highlights
What’s Next
Following an off day on Thursday, the Mets head to Philadelphia for a three-game series against the Phillies starting on Friday. First pitch is at 7:05 pm