The New York Mets couldn't keep the ball in the park against the San Francisco Giants in this loss.
The New York Mets dropped the second game of their three-game set against the San Francisco Giants, 9-5, as starter Zac Thornton and a series of relievers gave up six runs to help the Giants an easy win.
Thornton had a rough go in this one, as the Giants played long ball with him. He was victimized by Rafael Devers, who has plagued the Mets in this series, and he got Thornton off to a tough start with a solo homer in the first.
The Mets got two back in the second inning off of Anthony Molina with some long ball of their own, as the long-slumping A.J. Ewing broke out to hit a two run homer to give New York a 2-1 lead.
But Christian Koss was next up in the Giants home run parade, and he hit homered off Thornton in the third and the fifth. The one in the third was a two-run bomb, while his homer in the fifth was a solo shot. Rafael Devers also added to the home run carnage in the fifth with a solo homer, and that made it 6-2 to end Thornton’s day.
It was his worst start as a Met so far, with all six runs being earned on sven hits and a walk to go with seven strikeouts. It’ll be interesting to see what adjustments Thornton makes as the league starts to figure him out a little, as this outing raised his ERA to 3.53.
The Mets did rally against the Giants’ vulnerable bullpen, but they could only get a single run as Carson Seymour walked in a run in the seventh to make it 6-3. But the Giants pulled away with yet another homer, this one a two-run shot off Jefrey Yan in the eighth, and Grant McCray homered off Jeffrey Hagenman in the ninth to make it 9-3.
The Mets did make the ninth entertaining off Jason Foley as Jared Young singled and Ewing walked, with Brett Baty driving them home with a two-run RBI double that bounded off the top of the wall and back into play to make the final score 9-5.
It was a disappointing loss, and it cost the Mets a chance to potentially gain ground on the Washington Nationals as they try to escape from the basement of the NL East.
It was also typical of a team that’s mastered the art of taking one step forward and two steps back, or vice versa, depending on the given week. The rubber game happens tomorrow with the Mets sending Christian Scott to the mound against Cesar Perdomo for San Francisco.
