Errors Cost Mets in Marlins Series Opener

Trying to follow up an impressive sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies, the Mets didn’t play their crispest ball on Thursday.

It ended up costing them in a sluggish 7-4 loss to the Marlins. The Mets made three errors, resulting in five unearned runs.

Clay Holmes turned in an okay five innings, but it was his error that helped put the Mets behind in the third inning. The Marlins had just tied it, 2-2, on a soft tapper where second baseman Jeff McNeil tried to get the out at home. He couldn’t retire the speedy Xavier Edwards. With two outs, and a runner on second, Holmes simply missed a throw from Pete Alonso that should have ended the inning.

Alonso has struggled making that throw to the pitcher at times. But in this case, his throw was firm and on target. It clanked off Holmes’ glove, allowing the go-ahead run to score. The Marlins ended up scoring a third run in the inning to take a 4-2 lead.

Holmes at least made it through five innings, which wasn’t a given with the way he was racking up pitches early on. He was only charged with two earned runs, but the two unearned runs on his line were largely because of his miscue. He didn’t have much swing-and-miss stuff and only collected two strikeouts.

Alonso’s game-tying homer in the fifth provided the Mets some brief excitement, but another ugly inning got the better of them in the seventh. It started with another play involving Alonso. He fielded a ground ball, only to lose it on the transfer for an error.

Then, on a single rifled into left field by Agustín Ramírez, Brandon Nimmo couldn’t field the hop cleanly. His error allowed the Marlins to retake the lead.

“Unfortunately, it’s a part of the game,” Alonso told reporters afterwards. “The mistakes were capitalized upon. No matter who you play at this level, teams are gonna take advantage of those.”

Hayden Senger’s passed ball only continued the comedy of errors. Gregory Soto finally got the first out of the inning by getting Eric Wagaman swinging, but then the beginning of the third inning repeated itself. On a soft ground ball, McNeil tried to get an out at home and threw too late. It was ruled an infield single, but it was another shortcoming on the field.

The Marlins, with their second three-spot of the game, went up 7-4 and held on to win from there. Just one total run between the two crooked numbers was earned.

“We didn’t execute,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters after the game. “We didn’t play a clean game, and they made us pay for it.”

Some of the blame in Thursday’s contest could be pointed at the Mets’ offense, which was mostly lifeless outside of Alonso and Francisco Lindor. After the disastrous seventh, it didn’t have much of a response. But the primary issue was the subpar defense, which very well could have been the difference in outcomes. Holmes, Ryne Stanek, Soto and Kevin Herget turned in a collective effort that was good enough to win a baseball game.

It just looked like a team that came out sluggish after hammering down the Phillies with authority. The Mets’ pitching was mostly fine, and the offense didn’t lay a complete egg, but the squad overall just wasn’t as sharp as it had been lately.

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