It was an expensive loss for one team and an affordable win for another.
The Mets were beaten, 8-5, by a team with a payroll that is millions below theirs Tuesday night at Citi Field. The $75 million Tampa Bay Rays (32-11) have been the best team in baseball all season. This matchup was supposed to be a measuring stick series and after just one game, it’s clear the Mets don’t stack up. At least not at this point in the 2023 season and not the way the roster is currently constructed. Nothing has gone according to plan this season, including Justin Verlander’s Citi Field debut. The three-time Cy Young Award winner, who was signed to be the Mets’ second ace, gave up two home runs to Isaac Paredes and was booed off the field.
“I hold myself to a high standard. I expect to pitch well,” Verlander said. “I expect to lift the rotation up when they need it and I take a lot of pride in that. I work my ass off for that. To not be able to do it is frustrating. I know there will be other shots though. Back to the drawing board. Work hard, work as hard as I can, put my head down and fix it.”
The Rays were exactly as advertised. The league leaders in home runs, RBI and run differential took good swings and didn’t miss.
The Mets’ offense showed life after going down early, but it was too little, too late. After five games without a home run, the Mets (20-23) finally got three of them from Brett Baty, Pete Alonso and Eduardo Escobar, the latter of which hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth off Jake Diekman to bring the Mets to within three runs.
Verlander took the loss (1-2) by giving up six earned runs on eight hits. He walked two and struck out three over only five innings, creating yet another headache for an already taxed bullpen. He gave up a single and a walk to the top of the Rays’ order in the third and had Paredes at 3-2 with two outs. But he hung a curveball over the fat part of the plate. It was a home-run pitch and Paredes took it over the left-field fence.
“I was hoping that today I could be a catalyst and go out and have a great start against a good team and help us win,” Verlander said. “I wasn’t able to do that.”
The Rays took another run off the 2022 AL Cy Young Award winner in the fourth and pushed his pitch count to 75. Brandon Lowe doubled to lead off the fifth and with one out, Paredes hit a fly ball that barely stayed fair for his second of the night to make it 6-0.
The boos rang down as Verlander walked back to the dugout.
“If that ball squeaks just left of the foul pole then maybe we’re in the game,” Verlander said. “But this isn’t a game of what-if. Whether it was bad luck or I thought it would leave the yard or not, none of that matters. It did leave the yard. I didn’t make good enough pitches and I need to be better.”
Baty hit his third home run of the season in the bottom of the fifth off right-hander Yonny Chirinos, who was used after left-handed opener Jalen Beeks.
But then right-hander Dominic Leone gave one up to Jose Siri to make it 7-1. Alonso’s two-run shot, his 14th of the season, came off Chirinos in the bottom of the seventh.
Baty kept the inning alive with a two-out walk. Mark Canha appeared to run out an infield single but was called out. The Mets challenged the call and 28,296 desperate fans cheered as he appeared to be safe on video review.
But the call was upheld and Canha was called out. The boos started again.
Since their last series win in Los Angeles against the Dodgers in April, the Mets have gone 6-16. Some bad luck has certainly played a factor in this dismal stretch but luck alone can’t be blamed. The Mets didn’t go down without a fight, but it appears as though they may be heading toward shakeup territory.
“A ball clipped a foul pole and [Francisco] Lindor had one down there that missed the foul pole,” said manager Buck Showalter. “It’ll turn. Start getting some things that will go our way. We had a close call there at first base that we didn’t get overturned. Brett made some good plays and put a good swing on the ball. Pete and Escy, it’s been encouraging about Escy lately. At least we scored five runs, so hopefully we’ll take that positive and see if we can keep that going.”
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