Every Met not named Starling Marte had absolutely no answer for Logan Webb, as the Mets offense continued to keep cool since their Sunday loss to the Dodgers.
The story of this game has little to do with the Mets, and everything to do with the starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. Logan Webb was simply outstanding on the day (or night, you get the point). Despite only registering four strikeouts, he was as dominant as a starter could possibly be, inducing ground ball after ground ball after ground ball — 15 ground ball outs, to be exact. He ended up going eight shutout innings, and the only Met who had any semblance of comfortable at bats against Webb was Starling Marte, who got three of the six hits against the ace.
Luis Severino was far from bad himself, though he was felled by one bad inning. He was perfect through four, and looked as dominant as a Mets starter has this season, but the Giants got to him in the fifth. Back to back lead-off singles by Old Friend Michael Conforto (one that probably would have been caught if Brandon Nimmo was in left field instead of Jeff McNeil), and Matt Chapman set the stage for the Giants. A Thairo Estrada RBI seeing-eye single, and a Mike Yastrzemski two-RBI bloop single saw things escalate very quickly for Severino. He would get out of the inning, and pitch a solid sixth, but the damage was already done.
The Giants added two (superfluous) insurance runs against Drew Smith in the seventh. Smith, who was not his sharpest tonight despite the strong start to his 2024 campaign, allowed a lead off triple to Estrada. Yastrzemski would single him home, and LaMonte Wade would double off of Lindor’s glove (it is a hard play to explain, it was hit against the shift and Lindor tipped it into left field. You could convince me it was an error, but I digress) to make it 5-0 and stick the proverbial fork in the Mets.
The Mets attempted a fake comeback in the ninth against noted Weird Thrower Tyler Rodgers, starting with a Pete Alonso bloop double against the shift. Brett Baty would single to keep the line moving, DJ Stewart would ground into a fielder’s choice to drive in a run and force Camilo Doval into the game for the second day in a row, which is the smallest of silver linings for the series finale tomorrow. Doval, who pitched in game one as well and was a bit shaky, was excellent in this one, getting the final two outs on just five pitches, giving the Mets a series loss.
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Win Probability Added
Big Mets winner: Starling Marte, +5.2% WPA
Big Mets loser: Francisco Lindor, -13.6% WPA
Mets pitchers: -11.7% WPA
Mets hitters: -38.3% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Starling Marte’s fourth innings single, +4.4% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Thairo Estrada’s fifth inning RBI single, -18.1% WPA