WASHINGTON — The Mets’ pitching situation has become untenable.
Of all the problems facing the Mets right now, the starting pitching problem is the most pressing. The repeated failure of the club’s starters to go seven innings or even six creates a domino effect that’s tough to overcome on a nightly basis, no matter how good the bullpen may be.
And to be clear, the bullpen is pretty good right now. The best in the National League coming into Monday’s game against the Washington Nationals.
But another dismal start by David Peterson (1-6) in the fourth and final game of the series at Nationals Park illustrated the issue. The Nats tagged Peterson for six earned over five innings and the Mets lost 10-3 to split the series.
It was clear that Peterson was done after the fourth inning, maybe even the third. But the bullpen had to pick up 11 innings over the previous two games and the Mets had little choice but to let Peterson get to five innings. An overworked bullpen wouldn’t have been able to absorb much more.
A streaky offense doesn’t exactly help the situation. The lineup didn’t give Peterson much run support to work with, but then again, they’ve had to climb out of first-inning holes in 11 of the last 13 games.
The first-inning run allowed by Peterson was the 36th given up by the Mets this season. The visitors tied the game in the second when Starling Marte scored on an RBI single by Jeff McNeil. But with one out in the third, Peterson allowed two singles and an RBI double to give Washington (18-23) the lead again. A fly ball scored another run and the Nats ended the inning ahead 3-1.
They scored two more in the fourth and it might have been worse had the Mets not taken the bat out of the hands of Joey Meneses with a heads-up defensive play to get Luis Garcia in a rundown to end the inning. Meneses was 2-for-2 with two doubles at that point.
Peterson struck out Meneses to start the fifth but then he hit Keibert Ruiz and things devolved from there, with the Nationals scoring one more to chase him from the game.
However, Meneses would later get that third double, doing so in the bottom of the eighth to cap the scoring for Washington.
Tommy Hunter gave up a home run to CJ Abrams in the sixth to make it 8-2 in favor of the home team. This was Abrams’ second home run against the Mets in the series and his third this season.
The Mets’ best chance early on came in the second with the bases loaded and two out, but rookie catcher Francisco Alvarez was picked off first base to end the inning.
They scored one in the bottom of the ninth but stranded two to end the game.
Patrick Corbin (2-5) limited the Mets to just two earned runs on eight hits over six innings.
In the bottom of the seventh, Brandon Nimmo and Marte miscommunicated on a fly ball in right-center field and it dropped for a triple. Jeimer Candelario scored easily on a sacrifice fly by former Met Dominic Smith. It was an exclamation point on an uninspired day.
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