The Mets aren’t doing themselves a𝕴ny favors with sloppy play in the field.
For a team that is banking on success at home for the remaining games of the season, the Mets couldn’t have looked less comfortable on defense while playing in front of a home crowd of 28,848 at Citi Field in their 5-0 loss to the Phillies on Saturday night.
“It’s tough when you make those mistakes, because at that point we need to keep holding them because we’re not scoring,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said following the loss. “And obviously we have to win as many games as we possibly can at this point, so ⛎yes it’s a little frustrating.”
It was a rough first inning for starting pitcher Marcus Stroman, who gave up a leadoff home run to César Hernández after an eigꦐht-pitch battle before J.T. Realmuto followed with a base hit. Todd Frazier had the opportunity to register ജthe first out when Corey Dickerson popped one up right to him, but it was tough to track down and he couldn’t get a glove on it, letting it drop.
S🌼troman managed to get out o𓆏f the inning despite loading the bases.
In the second, Realmuto went to work again with a hard-hit grounder to left that just squeaked underneath a diving Fr🀅azier to put runners on first and second. Stroman prevented any further damage, issuing a strikeout to Dickerson to end the inning.
Disaster struck in the fourth when Scott Kingery led off with a shot right at J.D. Davis, who seemingly lost si🥀ght of the ball and let it fall for a base hit, earning the lone error. Adam Haseley singled to right to put runners on first and second before Hernández stepped to the plate and singled to right. Michael Conforto couldn’t make an accurate throw to home and Kingery scored to make it 2-0.
“It’s not a good feeling,” Davis said. “Especially when you know that leadoff runner should’ve been out, should’ve been caught and in the end it cost us a run and they took advantaღge of it. They made a few errors for us and we didn’t take advantage of it but they did.”
Stroman𒀰 went on to give up three more🍰 runs before he was replaced in the fifth inning.
Daniel Zamora came on in relief and prompted two fly outs, which sandwiched Conforto’s lone good play in the outfield. Kingery drilled one deep to right, but🐎 Conforto was abl🌜e to trace it back to the warning track and make the catch.
The Mets defense has improved with Amed Rosario, in particular, seemingly finding a groove at shortstop. But after a 5-4 win Friday night — including Edwin Diaz’s latest ninth-inning meltdown — falling into the same habits in the outfield✨ isn’t what the team needs right now.
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