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Mets takeaways from Friday’s 3-0 loss to Blue Jays, including no run support for Justin Verlander

June 2, 2023;  New York City, New York, USA;  New York Mets starting pitcher Justin Verlander (35) delivers a pitch during the first inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Citi Field.

The Mets could not find any offense against Chris Bassitt as they fell 3-0 to the Blue Jays on Friday night.

Here are the takeaways…

– Justin Verlander, coming in with a 4.29 ERA against the Blue Jays — the third worst against any opponent in his career — got off to a rocky start giving up a leadoff home run to George Springer, the 54th of his career. He was also hit by a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. liner — he waved the trainers away — but eventually got through the first inning after 21 pitches.

Verlander would settle down and keep the Jays off the board until the sixth inning. Bo Bichette led off with a single that was lined off Verlander’s leg. He walked Guerrero but struck out Brandon City and Matt Chapman swinging. Whit Merrifield loaded the bases with an infield single but the 40-year-old got Daulton Varsho to strike out swinging on a 2-2 slider to end the threat.

The Mets co-ace had his secondary pitches going on Friday night. He had the often free-swinging Jays off balance and chasing bad pitches. He struck out eight on the evening, all on sliders. Verlander got through six innings (117 pitches, a season-high) while scattering five hits, three walks and giving up just the lone run.

Chris Bassitt was on the bump for Toronto and he cruised from the jump against his former team. With his full array of pitches, Bassitt continued to get soft contact. He even retired 14 straight Mets at one point.

The only issue came in the third inning when the Mets had men on first and third with zero outs. However, Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso popped out to third base which sandwiched a Francisco Lindor strikeout to extinguish the Mets’ chance at scoring runs.

Bassitt got two outs in the seventh before he was pulled by manager John Schneider. Bassitt finished after 7.2 innings (101 pitches) and scattered three hits while striking out eight batters. Bassitt’s wife was in labor Friday and the right-hander left for Toronto once his start was done.

– The Mets offense was non-existent on Friday. Pete Alonso came into Friday’s game 1-for–his-last-13 was 0-for-3 before he hit a single in the ninth inning. Francisco Alvarez’s struggles continued as he went 0-for-3, which extended his hitless streak to 10 straight at-bats. The only other hits came off a double by Jeff McNeiland singles by Starling Marte and Mark Canha.

Canha continued to be zoned in at the plate. Aside from his single, he had a double stolen by Matt Chapman in his second at-bat on a scorcher down the line. Canha had the two hardest hit pitches on the night, the out and single both exceeded 100-mph off the bat.

– The Mets bullpen was, for the most part, effective after Verlander. Dominic Leone pitched a clean seventh while Drew Smith got through the eighth without a run. Jeff Brighamwho has been great of late, gave up a two-run shot to Varsho that put Toronto up 3-0.

The shutout loss was the team’s eighth of the season. They had eight all last season.

Highlights

What’s next

The Mets continue their three-game series against the Blue Jays on Saturday at 4:10 pm

Taylor Megill (5-3, 4.67 ERA) will be on the mound for the Mets and he’ll go up against RHP Jose Berrios (5-4, 3.86 ERA).