Carlos Mendoza’s slight lineup tweak did nothing to spark the Mets’ dormant bats. In fact, it nearly made it historically worse
Gavin Williams of the Cleveland Guardians carried a no-hitter through the first out of the ninth inning before surrendering a solo home run to dead center to Juan Soto, though it did little for the Mets in a 4-1 loss on Wednesday in which they were swept away by the AL Central club.
Williams, the 26-year-old right-hander, went 8.2 innings while allowing that lone hit to Soto to go with five strikeouts and four walks on an MLB-season-high 126 pitches. Reliever Hunter Gaddis recorded the final out to relegate the Mets to their fourth straight loss and their eighth defeat in the last nine games.
“You have to give him credit,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He was really good today, using all his pitches, but we know that we’re better than that. We just couldn’t make any adjustments. A lot of empty at-bats. As good as he was, he gave us a few good pitches to hit, and we missed it…
“They know they’re better, and I know we’re better.”
While Soto’s home run avoided dubious history, it did little to mask what has been an ice-cold offense that did not record a hit for 13.1 innings.
Before the ninth-inning big fly, the Mets last recorded a hit when Jeff McNeil led off the fourth inning of Tuesday night’s 3-2 loss to Cleveland with a single. They ended that night with the last 14 men going down in order, and went 42 outs in total between hits.
Mendoza moved Francisco Lindor back into the lead-off spot with Soto batting second, the first time they have done so since May 20. The Mets also trotted out their 109th different lineup in 115 games, which is the most in the majors.
Clearly, a working combination does not exist yet, as a potential Williams’ no-hitter felt like a lock in the late innings.
“It’s hard to pinpoint one thing,” Mendoza said. “You look at the past few days, we go in with a gameplan and we haven’t been able to make an adjustment… Today was pretty easy. You saw the curveballs below the zone against the lefties, finishing them with fastballs at the top. He threw some two-seams against the righties. But once you get that first time through [the lineup], we’ve got to be able to make those adjustments and recognize what he’s able to do. The last few weeks, we’ve been unable to do that.”
What little bit of luck that could have been for the Mets went Cleveland’s way for most of the afternoon. Lindor led the game off with a line drive that knocked Williams’ glove clean off his hand, but the ball stayed close enough for him to gather and throw him out.
Mark Vientos’ bloop into right field might have gotten down on another day, but right-fielder CJ Kayfus made a diving catch to preserve the no-no.
Williams got the green light for the eighth inning despite being at 97 pitches — his previous season-high was 109 pitches.
Cedric Mullins pulled a full-count liner down the first-base line leading off the eighth, but it was just foul. He struck out swinging on the next pitch. Francisco Alvarez and Brett Baty followed with groundouts.
Following Soto’s home run, Williams retired Pete Alonso, but walked Brandon Nimmo, which prompted Vogt to pull his starter for Gaddis, who induced a game-ending flyout to Mark Vientos.
Clearly, there are no answers to why a lineup with this much star power is struggling this badly. During this current stretch that has featured eight losses in their last nine games, they’ve been held to three or fewer runs six times.
A shakeup is necessary at this point rather than waiting for this sort of slump to end. Where it comes from, though, remains unknown.
“I really don’t know what’s going on,” Soto said. “I feel like we have the talent, and the guys are capable of doing damage here. I think one day it’s going to turn around.”
