QUEENS, NY — The New York Mets’ offense was asleep at the wheel on Tuesday night, surrendering a 2-0 lead early and falling 3-2 to the Cleveland Guardians. It’s New York’s seventh loss in their last eight games following a seven-game winning streak.
“We didn’t create anything,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after the game. “I don’t think we hit many balls hard, [Francisco] Lindor had a few, we just didn’t put anything together.”
The Mets got off on the right foot early, scoring two runs in as many innings against Cleveland’s Logan Allen. Pete Alonso drove in the opening run on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first, and Tyrone Taylor delivered an RBI single the next inning.
The Guardians went nine up, nine down against New York starter Clay Holmes but adjusted to tie the game in the fourth. Kyle Manzardo and Gabriel Arias each had RBI singles in the inning for Cleveland, notching three hits and a walk in total.
New York struggled to get anything going against Allen after loading the bases in the second, allowing the southpaw to get through five innings of two-run ball with six punchouts, despite four walks and four hits allowed. The long fourth also forced Holmes out after five, allowing two runs, three hits, a walk and striking out six.
The Mets as a whole continue to struggle against lefties, hitting just .225 against southpaws with a .655 OPS. Francisco Lindor went 0-for-3 with a walk, Alonso was one-for-three with his sacrifice fly, and Mark Vientos was 1-for-4 with a single. With those three needing to be at their best against left-handers, the trend is something the Mets are well aware of.
“As a whole, we’re having a really hard time putting a rally together and being consistent against lefties,” he said. “Right now, they got our numbers, but I’m anticipating things to turn here quickly.”
The game turned into a battle of the bullpens, with Gregory Soto and Matt Festa trading scoreless sixth innings. However, Tyler Rogers had the lone blemish for the Mets, allowing four straight runners to reach in the top of the seventh with two outs. Steven Kwan gave Cleveland the lead with an RBI single.
However, the one run was more than enough for the Guardians’ bullpen. Festa, Kolby Allard, Jakob Junis and Cade Smith shut down New York’s combined to retire the final 12 batters of the game. Cleveland pitching retired the final 14 batters faced in the game, with New York’s last hit coming to leadoff the fourth inning. The last baserunner for New York came on a one-out walk by Juan Soto in the bottom of the fifth.
New York falls to 63-51 with the loss, sitting 2.5 games back of the Philadelphia Phillies for first place in the National League East. The Guardians improve to 58-55 with the win, moving within two games of the Seattle Mariners for the final Wild Card spot in the American League.
David Peterson will look to salvage the series finale on Wednesday, he’ll oppose Guardians righty Gavin Williams at 1:10 p.m.
