QUEENS — The Mets appear to have left their offense on the west coast because their bats in their first two games back home have been M.I.A.
MacKenzie Gore, who was acquired by Washington in the trade for Juan Soto last season, ripped through the Mets’ lineup, tying a career-high with 10 strikeouts across six innings. He allowed just one run on four hits as the Washington Nationals took their second straight from New York, 4-1, on Wednesday night at Citi Field. This coming one night after Josiah Gray shut down the Mets (14-11) in a 5-0 result.
“We knew coming in that they have pitched as well as anybody in the league,” Showalter said of the now 9-14 Nationals. “We’re seeing that. We’re seeing why Gore was a guy [the Nationals] wanted for a guy like Soto.”
Coupled with two straight losses in the back half of a four-game set against the San Francisco Giants, the Mets have now lost four straight games — their longest losing streak since losing five straight from Sept. 21-26, 2021.
“This is one of those stretches,” Francisco Lindor, who went 0-for-4, said. “We’ve been a group that’s been able to turn the page extremely quick. Learn from today, turn the page.”
At the root of the issue is the continuation to falter in situations with runners on base. They left eight in total on the basepaths on Wednesday night, including a failure to score a single run with runners on second and third with one out in the seventh inning as both Starling Marte and Lindor struck out.
“They pitched well,” Lindor, now for 1-for-his-last-21 said. “And I missed my pitches that I’ve gotten to hit.”
The Nationals carved two of their three runs in the second inning against Kodai Senga, who once again trudged through a laborious start, going five innings with four walks and seven strikeouts.
He worked around a 14-pitch first inning in which he threw six consecutive balls but wasn’t nearly as lucky in the second. Yielding a pair of walks and three hits, the Nationals hung two on Senga in the second to put the Mets in an early hole.
“He had a tough time finding a consistent release point,” Showalter said. “He’s shown that this year where if there’s a long inning and it really challenged… but he keeps us engaged in the game.”
Marte brought the Mets to within one by salvaging a lead-off Eduardo Escobar triple thanks to a two-out single to left. With no outs in the frame, Tomas Nido inexplicably bunted right back to Gore before Brandon Nimmo struck out swinging. It was the Mets’ first run scored in 14 innings.
While Senga continued to battle with control issues, allowing four baserunners over the next three innings, he was able to gut through five frames on 94 pitches — two short of tying his season-high — behind four punchouts and a pair of well-timed double plays turned by Jeff McNeil.
“You could tell the last couple innings he felt more comfortable,” Showalter said. “It’s good to see. I thought he was a lot crisper the last couple innings.”
“I think I was able to handle the ball a little bit better toward the end but I need to be able to do that right from the get to,” Senga added. “Given the pitch count, I want to go deeper in the game. In order for me to do that, I need to start up [better].”
Out of those 94 pitches thrown, only 57 were strikes as the command of his ghost forkball eluded him as he spiked his putaway pitch four times, including a wild pitch in the fourth inning.
“I just didn’t have very good control early on,” Senga said. “All of my forkballs need to be executed better. When the forkball isn’t executed, it’s just driven into the ground off the plate and it just becomes an uncompetitive pitch.”
Jeimer Candelario added to the Nationals’ lead in the seventh against reliever Jeff Brigham when he launched his fourth home run of the season over the right-field fence — a solo shot to put the visitors up 3-1.
With two outs in the eighth, reliever Mets Adam Ottavino walked Victor Robles, threw wildly on a pick-off attempt that allowed him to move up to second, and then lost track of him as he easily stole third base. Robles then trotted home on an Alex Call single up the middle to extend Washington’s lead.
Ottavino’s wild throw on the pick-off was the last of the Mets’ three errors on the night.
“That’s the thing that’s been disappointing for us,” Showalter said of the errors. “That’s something we’ve been really good at. The last couple games have not been indicative of one of our strengths are.”
For more on the Mets, visit AMNY.com
