Mets' struggles continue with RISP, drop opener against Red Sox - Newsday
BOSTON — Here is a non-comprehensive list of the top things troubling one of the best teams in baseball: 1. They’ve stopped hitting with runners in scoring position. 2. Their manager needs to talk to their superstar about not hustling out of the box. 3. Said superstar doesn’t believe it’s an issue.
The Mets rolled into wind-swept Fenway Park Monday night, and rolled out of it with more than just a 3-1 loss to the Red Sox. They were subject to a number of non-competitive at-bats with runners in scoring position, going 1-for-8 in those instances and leaving six on base.
And then there was the Juan Soto issue.
Trailing 3-1 in the sixth inning, their 765 million-dollar man lasered a ball to left and admired it. One problem: There stood the giant green wall. The ball hit off the Green Monster and instead of potentially standing at second, Soto had to pull up at first (to be fair, he erased the gaffe by immediately stealing a base). This came a day after fans took to social media to lament him for not running hard out of the box, particularly during the eighth inning of a 2-2 game on Sunday night in the Subway Series.
“We’ll talk to him about it,” Carlos Mendoza said. “Obviously, when somebody gets a hold of one and he knows when he gets it, it’s Juan. And he thought he had it with the wind and all that. In this ballpark, in particular with that wall right there, you’ve got to get out of the box, so yeah, we’ll discuss that.”
Asked about his hustle, Soto replied: “I hit it pretty hard . . . I tried to get to second, but it wasn’t enough.”
Does he have to be more cognizant of busting out of the box?
“No,” he said. “I think I’ve been hustling pretty hard. If you saw it [Monday], you could tell.”
It was the capper on a frustrating night in a series of frustrating nights: The Mets have lost four of their last five, including two in the Bronx. They have gone 5-for-37 (.135) with runners in scoring position during that span, leaving 37 on base. Their .218 batting average with RISP ranks 25th in baseball.
“It feels like we’re taking really good pitches to hit, being passive and then at times chasing,” Mendoza said. “We’ve got to start executing . . . We’ve got to go out there with conviction.”
Monday was decidedly a mixed bag, with at least two hard-fought, tough luck at bats, and some overeager ones — including two rally-killing double plays from Soto and Brandon Nimmo.
The Red Sox, meanwhile, capitalized on Kodai Senga’s early wildness, scoring their three runs in the first two innings. Senga allowed three runs and five hits in six innings, striking out five and walking three. His ERA rose from 1.02 to 1.43.
Senga said after the game that he was struggling to adjust to the blustery conditions early on — whipping winds that, at one point, took a pop-up that looked like it was going to go to the left of the infield and careened it to the right and landed in foul territory.
After giving up a leadoff double to Jarren Duran, Senga walked Rafael Devers on four pitches. His wild pitch moved both runners over for Alex Bregman, who drove in the opening run on a groundout. Two batters later, Trevor Story singled to make it 2-0.
In the second inning, Senga walked Carlos Narvaez with one out before Duran tripled to the rightfield corner to put the Red Sox up 3-0.
The Mets’ lone run came with one out in the third, when Tyrone Taylor singled home Franciso Alvarez, who led off the inning with a long double to right. Francisco Lindor walked, but Soto hit into a 4-6-3 double play — his ninth of the year after hitting into 10 all of last season.
The Mets had another rally killed in the fifth. Alvarez and Jeff McNeil hit back-to-back one-out singles to place runners at the corners for Taylor, who struck out looking on a ball well below the strike zone. Lefty reliever Justin Wilson then struck out Lindor swinging on a 3-and-2 slider near his shoe tops on the 10th pitch of the at-bat.
The Mets stranded two more in the sixth. With Alonso on first and Soto on second, Nimmo hit into a 5-6-3 double play. Vientos then flew out to right.
It was more of the same in the seventh. With two on and two outs, Lindor grounded out on the first pitch of his at-bat.
“I thought he chased [Monday] against a lefty,” Mendoza said of Lindor. “He’s not going to be perfect all the time. He’s too good of a player and I feel like the past couple of days, he’s not getting the results there, but he’ll be fine.”
Time will tell if the same is true of the other troubling issues surfacing around the team.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.