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Try it freeThe Mets sailed through the season’s first 10 weeks with nary a worry.
That couldn’t last forever.
After Sunday’s miserable 9-0 loss to the Rays marked their first time getting swept all year, the Mets are finally facing something resembling adversity, with their rotation losing Kodai Senga and going downhill from there while their bats went silent against Shane Baz at Citi Field on Sunday.
Griffin Canning’s control issues proved the main driver behind Sunday’s defeat, with the pitcher doing most of Tampa’s damage for it as Canning walked five batters, threw a wild pitch and surrendered a series of infield hits on his way to giving up six runs in 4 ¹/₃ innings.
With Tylor Megill struggling Saturday and Paul Blackburn having a tough game out of the bullpen Friday, the pitching staff that was a strength all year is suddenly packed with question marks.
Canning, who’s given up four or more runs in consecutive starts, couldn’t locate his fastball or cutter on Sunday, consistently missing high while failing to induce swings-and-misses.
A three-run second inning for Tampa started with consecutive walks to Jonathan Aranda and Jake Magnum before José Caballero’s bunt single loaded the bases. The runs came on Kameron Misner’s groundout, a Canning wild pitch and Danny Jansen’s single — the only time all inning that the ball left the infield.
That was emblematic of the day, when most of Tampa’s base runners came in frustratingly similar fashion.
Canning was finally chased in the fifth after walking two of the first three batters he saw — only for Aranda to line Max Kranick’s second pitch of the day down the right field line to score both runners.
Meanwhile, Baz, who came into the afternoon with an abysmal 4.97 ERA, had his best outing on Sunday, going 6 ²/₃ scoreless innings through which the Mets barely threatened.
The Mets got runners into scoring position just twice against Baz, and both innings ended with Pete Alonso swinging at strike three. Alonso struck out to end the first with Brandon Nimmo on third. He then left the bases loaded to end the third — and the Mets’ best chance to put some runs on the board. To make a bad day worse, the first baseman grounded into a double play in the sixth.
It was far from just Alonso struggling, though. Nimmo’s first-inning single marked the only hit for the top half of the Mets batting order all afternoon.
Baz struck out six, and when the Mets made contact, the damp and dreary weather was no help, as a couple of fly balls fell short on the warning track.
Mason Montgomery, Eric Orze and Cole Sulser closed the door for Tampa, with Junior Caminero’s three-run home run off Ryne Stanek in the ninth ending any remaining semblance of competition.
Adversity is a relative term here, it being mid-June and the Mets still being in first place. For a team whose biggest alarm bell so far this season was Juan Soto being merely good as opposed to great for a while, though, this is something different as the Mets head to Atlanta for the first time this season starting Tuesday.
Their lead in the division is down to 2 ½ games after the Phillies beat Toronto, and though the Braves have struggled this season, Atlanta has consistently given the Mets trouble in recent years.
Coming off a messy weekend at home, it might be the first time all year you don’t need to squint to see question marks around the Mets.