QUEENS, NY — Nolan McLean is going through the same rite of passage that Jacob deGrom had to trudge through during his time in Queens. Granted, this version of the New York Mets ensures that all its pitchers receive the same treatment: virtually zero run support.
Mets bats were shut down by Jose Quintana and the Colorado Rockies in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader at Citi Field, a 3-1 loss that was New York’s (9-18) second straight and their 14th in the last 16 games.
“We have to do something, right?” manager Carlos Mendoza, whose hot seat warms with every loss, began. “That’s not a good showing. We gotta fix it.”
Quintana, the former Met, went 5.1 innings, allowing that lone blemish on a Tyrone Taylor solo home run in the fifth inning and two hits in total. The Mets have scored four runs in their last two games, and have been held to three or fewer in 13 of their last 16. They recorded just four hits on Sunday.
For McLean, the Mets have scored just six runs over his last four starts.
They loaded the bases twice with one out in the first and eighth innings, but failed to score a single run. In the penultimate frame, following singles from Francisco Alvarez and Bo Bichette and a Juan Soto walk, Luis Robert Jr. popped out to first base in foul territory, and Mark Vientos struck out swinging.
“It’s frustrating,” Mendoza said. “We’re not having good at-bats. And then we had an opportunity with the bases loaded, and we couldn’t cash in. Every time we get opportunities like that, we’ve got to be able to [score], and we haven’t been able to do that. We gotta get going.”
After cruising through the first turn of the Rockies’ order, in which he struck out six of the first nine men he faced, McLean loaded the bases in the fourth inning with no outs and yielded the game’s first run through a Troy Johnston RBI single. He limited the damage by getting Kyle Karros to strike out before inducing an inning-ending 1-2-3 double play from Brett Sullivan.
But after Taylor tied the game in the bottom of the fifth with his second home run of the season, and the first Mets hit off Jose Quintana since a Vientos bloop single in the first inning, the Rockies loaded the bases again on McLean with none out. Vientos inflamed the situation, though, when he hit Mickey Moniak in the back on a tailor-made double play ball.
It was the last batter McLean faced, going five-plus innings, striking out seven, and walking two while getting charged with just one earned run.
“I felt pretty good. I thought my stuff was in a good spot,” Mclean said. “Pretty happy with the outing. There was obviously some traffic there in a couple innings, but I felt like I did a good job minimizing damage.”
Huascar Brazoban induced a double play from Johnston, which scored a run, but limited the damage to just that. He gave up one more in the seventh on an RBI single from Jake McCarthy.
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