PHILADELPHIA — The Mets can blame their four-game losing streak on facing four pitchers who were nearly unhittable, and they wouldn’t be wrong. However, the thing about facing good pitching as a potential playoff team is that in the playoffs, you have to be able to hit good pitching.
Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Ranger Suarez shut the Mets out over six innings in a 9-3 loss Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park, allowing only a single hit, walking three and striking out 12.
“Sometimes, you’ve got to give [the pitchers] credit,” said right fielder Juan Soto. “When they land pitches on the corners — like he did all night — it’s not easy to hit off. We’re hitters, we hit mistakes, and we’re just waiting for the mistakes to do damage. Those guys like that, they’re just hitting the corners and getting calls right on the edge. It’s really tough to do some damage when they do that.”
The best the Mets (76-69) can hope for is a four-game series split against their NL East rivals, and while the team has maintained optimism this week, their hopes of winning the division are pretty much gone. They remain in third place in the NL Wild Card standings, with the San Francisco Giants only 2.5 games behind them. The Arizona Diamondbacks and the Cincinnati Reds are also a threat to move up in the standings, especially since the Reds own the tiebreaker over the Mets.
Mark Vientos homered off former Mets reliever David Robertson in the seventh to make it 4-1, and Juan Soto drove in Jose Siri in the eighth with an RBI single. By then, the game was already out of reach.
Long reliever Justin Hagenman kept the score at 4-0 with a scoreless sixth, but then gave up a three-run homer to Kyle Schwarber, giving the Phillies a 7-1 advantage. Hagenman gave up five earned runs over three innings.
The Mets failed to create any real traffic against Suarez (12-6) or the rest of the relievers. Brandon Nimmo led off the fifth with a single, the only hit the Mets managed against Suarez, but the runner was quickly erased with a double play by Starling Marte. Francisco Alvarez and Jeff McNeil walked to put two on, but Siri, playing in his first game since April, struck out to end the inning.
Suarez retired the side in the sixth with relative ease.
“I thought the fastball was probably the best we’ve seen in the past couple of years,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “The life, the movement, he used it to finish hitters and froze a few of them there for strike 3. I mean, pretty much everything for him was working.”
Sean Manaea pitched to his season averages, going five innings and giving up four earned runs. He put the Mets in a 2-0 hole in the bottom of the first that became a 4-0 deficit when Otto Kemp and Harrison Bader hit back-to-back bombs in the second.
Mendoza pulled a visibly upset Manaea into the tunnel following the inning.
“He was showing a little bit of frustration there, but at the same time, you’ve got to fight,” Mendoza said. “I’m glad that he was able to respond to it. I was proud of him for that, but I think that’s the messaging for all of us here. We’re right in the middle of it, and we’ve got to fight.”
The message was received. Manaea then retired the next 10 straight to complete his outing.
“After that, I said, ‘Screw it, it can’t get any worse,” Manaea said. “It’s a letting go of all these things that I want to do,
and just going out and pitching, just trying to be free. And I feel like I actually did that the third to the fifth [innings]. That was just the biggest differentiator.”
This was the sixth time in 10 appearances the left-hander has given up four or more earned runs. At the moment, the Mets are planning on having him make his next start, but keeping him in the starting rotation the rest of the month might not be sustainable. Currently, the Mets are using a six-man rotation for this turn, so they could take him out and move him to the bullpen.
The veteran has pitched in a relief role in the past, owning a 3.95 ERA in 84 1/3 innings of relief.
“This is a guy that we’re counting on,” Mendoza said. “He was huge for us last year. I know this year has been a struggle for him, and obviously he’s frustrated too, but we’re going to need this guy. We brought this guy in here to make an impact, and our job is to continue to help him.”
The Mets have to do what they feel is best for their postseason hopes. There are no easy decisions in the month of September, especially when it comes to a pitcher who is so well-liked and well-respected. The playoffs are not guaranteed at the moment.Then again, some run support sure would help matters all around.
Maybe what the Mets are really running out of time for is to play like a playoff team.
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