Mets Lose to Rangers 3-2 And Waste Stellar Start From Brandon Sproat for Eighth Consecutive Loss

 

Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez (Photo Credits to Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images)

The New York Mets lost to the Texas Rangers 3-2 this afternoon at Citi Field for their eighth consecutive loss and dropped their record to 76-73.

RHP Brandon Sproat made his second career start and had outstanding outing with six scoreless innings with six hits and no walks with three strikeouts.

He had excellent command of all his pitches and mixed in his two-seam fastball, and sweeper and change-up well.

Sproat has a 2.35 ERA through his first two career starts.

LHP Brooks Raley followed with a scoreless top of the seventh.

RHP Tyler Rogers came on in the top of the eighth and got into immediate trouble after catcher Francisco Alvarez committed catchers interference to lead off the inning and then gave up a double to the following hitter LF Wyatt Langford.

Rogers gave up a sacrifice fly to the next hitter DH Joc Pederson and then struck out Jake Burger and was taken out.

RHP Edwin Diaz came on and threw a wild pitch and walked the first batter he faced 3B Josh Jung and gave up a ground-rule double to the following hitter pinch-hitter Rowdy Tellez.

Diaz was able to keep it tied and came back out for the top of the ninth and gave up a lead-off single that SS Francisco Lindor should have caught and after a sacrifice bunt and strikeout, gave up the game-winning RBI single to Langford.

The Met offense was held scoreless for the first four innings until the bottom of the fifth after SS Francisco Lindor led off with a perfectly executed drag bunt single and two batters later, 1B Pete Alonso hit a bloop single that fell off 2B Cody Freeman. Lindor then made a hustle play after the throw deflected off 3B Josh Jung which allowed him to score and Alonso advanced to second.

3B Mark Vientos and LF Brandon Nimmo followed with strikeouts to end the inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, pinch-hitter Brett Baty led off with a single and catcher Francisco Alvarez was hit by a pitch. Baty then made a careless baserunning error after he was picked off second base and did not slide and 2B Jeff McNeil flew out and CF Jose Siri struck out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the seventh, RF Juan Soto hit a solo homer with one out for his 40th homer of the season.

In the bottom of the eighth, Nimmo led off with an infield single and advanced to second on a throwing error by Jung. However, Nimmo was not able to score after Baty struck out, Alvarez grounded out to third, McNeil walked and then pinch-hitter Cedric Mullins struck out to end the threat.

In the bottom of the ninth, Soto singled with one out and two batters later, pinch-hitter Ronny Mauricio singled with two outs, but Nimmo struck out to end the game.

The offense wasted several scoring opportunities and went 1-10 with runners in scoring position leaving 12 runners on base.

The Mets next game is tomorrow afternoon, Sunday, September 14 at home against the Rangers at 1:40 p.m.