The Diamondbacks played an unusually sloppy game in an 8-3 loss to the New York Mets at Chase Field. A six-run fifth inning, a result of poor execution in both pitching and defense, chased Brandon Pfaadt from the game. At the same time, their offense took seven to get going against left-hander Sean Manaea, which came too little too late to salvage this game.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!“When you’re playing against a team like the Mets, who are chasing the same thing we are, they’re going to take advantage of the extra outs, some of the misguided pitches, some of the situations where we potentially finished off some hitters and we don’t do that, teams linger and they put up big numbers and that’s what we saw today,” said manager Torey Lovullo.
The Mets opened up the scoring with two runs in the second. Pete Alonso took a center-cut fastball and hit it out to right-center to put the Mets on the board. Following a walk, it appeared the Diamondbacks had an inning-ending double play, but Pfaadt threw to the shortstop side of the bag and clanked off second baseman Kevin Newman’s glove. Jeff McNeil reached on a fielder’s choice, with Josh Bell electing to try to turn the double play instead of go after the out at home with Martinez running from third.
The wheels fell off Pfaadt in the fifth, as the Mets collected six hits in the frame. Many of those hits were ground balls finding holes, as the Diamondbacks’ fundamentally solid defense had an off night. It was a particularly rough inning for Geraldo Perdomo, who came up empty on all three balls hit right at him. By the time the fifth was over, Pfaadt was charged for eight runs (six earned) over 4 2/3 innings on eight hits, one walk, and six strikeouts.
Jordan Montgomery inherited a bases-loaded jam in his first relief appearance for Arizona. He hit Tyrone Taylor on the right toe with a curveball then walked Jeff McNeil. He got Francisco Alvarez to hit a ground ball to shortstop, but Perdomo in his haste mishandled the ball. as the Mets took an 8-0 lead.
“You can’t give up six runs in an inning,” said Lovullo. “Whether that’s pitching, defense, I don’t know. We got to figure out what that is and get better at it.”
Despite allowing all three inherited runners to score, Montgomery gave the rest of the bullpen the night off with 4 1/3 innings in relief. That is something that could pay off major dividends later in the series.
On the other side, the Diamondbacks had no answer for Manaea for the first six innings. The veteran left-hander, who has a career 2.50 in three starts at Chase Field, shut down Arizona’s high-octane lineup. He was jumping ahead of Arizona hitters and dotting the edges of the strike zone with fastballs and sweepers to finish them off. He recorded 11 strikeouts, the second time he’s registered a double-digit strikeout game against the Diamondbacks this season.
Arizona batters continued to battle in against the left-hander, finally breaking through in the seventh. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. led off the inning with a fly ball that barely cleared the left field fence. Josh Bell punched another ball into right field for his second hit of the night. Corbin Carroll then crushed a belt-high fastball on Manaea’s 102nd and final pitch to the walkway in center field to make it 8-3.
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The Diamondbacks threatened later in the inning with singles by Newman and José Herrera with two outs, but Geraldo Perdomo hit a lazy pop-up to third on the first pitch. Jake McCarthy led off the eighth with a double, but was stranded at third when Josh Bell popped out to second and Joc Pederson struck out. The Pederson at-bat was particularly rough, as the Mets brought in left-handed reliever Danny Young to neutralize him.
While the loss is a missed opportunity, the Diamondbacks will have a chance to even up the series. They’ll send left-hander Eduardo RodrÃguez (2-0, 3.94 ERA) while the Mets will go with right-hander Luis Severino (9-6, 3.84 ERA). First pitch at Chase Field on Wednesday will be at 6:40 P.M. MST.
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Michael McDermott covers the Arizona Diamondbacks, Arizona Cardinals, and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @MichaelMcDMLB
