mobanmarketST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Mets’ seven-game winning streak came to a screeching halt on the first leg of their three-city, 10-day road trip.
David Peterson, after retiring 17 straight batters, and the Mets bullpen allowed the Rays to come from behind and extinguish the Amazin’s winning ways in a damaging ninth inning. The Rays walked it off and the Mets fell, 3-2, on Friday night at Tropicana Field. “We’re not going to look at this as a big fail,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said. “One of those adversities that we just didn’t win this time.”
Friday was a rare collapse for a Mets bullpen that had otherwise shown strength for weeks. The Mets’ relief corps entered the evening with a 1.73 ERA (13 earned runs in 67.2 innings) in their last 17 games since April 22.
Miguel Castro, who wound up with the loss, took the hill in the ninth inning of a tied game and promptly loaded the bases with a walk, single and walk for Aaron Loup, who had no room to make a mistake with one out. Loup retired his first batter, pinch-hitter Joey Wendle, on a strikeout before he allowed the game-winning RBI single to Brett Phillips. The Rays ran onto the field in a hurry and mobbed their hero, who was hitting in the nine-hole.
Peterson desperately needed to bounce back in his seventh start of the year Friday after he gave up three earned runs in his 1.2-inning outing his last time out. Though Peterson’s early innings looked shaky (he surrendered a leadoff double and back-to-back walks in the second), he rebounded and retired 17 consecutive batters — until a hiccup in the eighth inning — for a mostly restorative night.
“Kind of put my own back against the wall and had to try and find my way out,” Peterson said of his nearly disastrous second inning. “It was good to have James [McCann] back there. He exudes a lot of confidence, so he’s a main factor. And then having a good defense allows me to throw strikes and put the ball in play.”
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The southpaw hurled 7.1 innings for the longest outing of his career in the Mets’ loss. He struck out nine over that stretch and allowed four hits and two walks. Peterson’s blunder arrived when Mike Zunino took him deep — 450 feet to the left-field second deck — to lead off the eighth and cut the Mets’ lead in half.
Rojas said he left Peterson in the game after that homer because the Rays’ hitter he viewed as the Mets’ biggest target, Randy Arozarena, was still a couple of batters away. And no one was warming up in the bullpen to start the eighth because Peterson was pitching well and Arozarena was hitting fourth that inning, per Rojas.
Trevor May took over for Peterson after the lefty gave up a double following his dinger allowed to Zunino. May, who kept rolling his right shoulder back and generally looked a bit off, retired Arozarena on a lineout, but allowed Peterson’s baserunner to score when he gave up an RBI game-tying double to Manuel Margot.
“They’ve done a great job this season,” Rojas said of the bullpen. “They’re going to be back in those types of situations.”
Villar put the only Mets runs on the board with a two-run home run that just barely sailed over the right-field wall in the fifth inning. Villar paused at the plate as the ball cruised to right, seemingly admiring his second dinger of the year that, at the time, provided Peterson with some breathing room. Villar also flashed his leather with a couple of outstanding plays at third base, most notably a sharp scoop and turn in the dirt on a scorched line drive in the fourth.
“The reason I stood there was because I knew it was a home run,” Villar said. “When I stand there, that’s when I know it’s gone.”
Pete Alonso, in his Tampa homecoming with his parents and fiancée Haley Walsh in attendance at Tropicana, suffered a golden sombrero for the third time in his career with four strikeouts on the night.