The New York Mets sent Nolan McLean to the mound against Eduardo Rodriguez, who once again bested his WBC rival.
Nolan McLean and Eduardo Rodriguez recreated their pitching matchup from the WBC when Team USA faced Team Venezuela, and for the first half of the game it was nearly as memorable, even if the stakes weren’t as high.
This was an ordinary night game in early April between the New York Mets and the Arizona Diamondbacks, but neither pitcher was even close to ordinary. McLean and Rodriguez put up plenty of zeroes on the scoreboard, but it was the Mets who broke on top right out of the gate.
Luis Robert Jr. did the damage with a home run in the first , and it became clear shortly after that this one was going to be a serious pitcher’s duel. Both hurlers were brilliant, and at one point McLean struck out 6 of 9 Arizona hitters.
But it was McLean who also gave in first in the bottom of the seventh during his third time through the Diamondbacks order. The trouble started with a walk to Geraldo Perdomo, and one out later Jose Fernandez singled him to second. The Mets brought in Luke Weaver to pick up McLean, and that was the beginning of the end for the Mets.
The big blow was a double by catcher Gabriel Moreno to right that drove in Arizona’s first run, as right fielder Brett Baty showed his inexperience when he was unable to run down what would have been an admittedly tough play. Another run followed on a fielder’s choice when catcher Luis Torrens was unable to make the tag when first baseman Mark Vientos threw home after fielding a grounder.
Both runs were charged to McLean, who wound up striking out eight, and Weaver was unable to stem the tide. Arizona started hitting, and a different game ensued with Weaver and his successor, Luis Garcia, both getting hit hard to close this one out. The Diamondbacks plated four runs in the seventh and three more in the eighth, and by the time the scoring was over the Mets were on the wrong end of a 7-1 blowout, with Rodriguez getting the win as a pair of Arizona relievers followed up by shutting down New York.
The Mets produced almost no offense other than the Robert home run as they ended up with a total of six hits. This was another game where the absence of outfielder Juan Soto was telling, so it will be interesting to see how long that lasts.
McLean deserved far better than the loss he ended up taking, and a good effort from the bullpen would have at least kept the Mets in the game. They ended up dropping the rubber game of this series to fall to 7-6, and the Mets will try to rebound with the Athletics coming to Citi Field for another three-game set.