After the New York Mets missed two great opportunities to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Dodgers made sure they took away any hope of a Mets win early on. They clubbed five home runs and 12 hits on their way to a 12-4 victory on Sunday Night Baseball.
The Mets are now 2-27 (.074) with runners in scoring position in this series. pic.twitter.com/jOFRNcQjLA
— SNY (@SNYtv) August 16, 2021
The Mets were bad at every facet of the game, from pitching to hitting to managing. Carlos Carrasco started to show that the Mets rushed him back as he struggled again. Carrasco allowed six runs in two innings and needed 57 pitches to make it through the awful start. It only took three batters for Justin Turner to hit a two-run home run and give L.A. a 2-0 lead. Will Smith added on with another homer in the first inning, and the Dodgers never looked back. Max Muncy also mixed in two more homers throughout the blowout as well.
Mets manager Luis Rojas made a baffling mistake in the second inning when he decided to let Carrasco hit for himself in the bottom of the second. The Mets were down 6-0 against Dodgers ace Max Scherzer, but Rojas allowed Carrasco to bunt instead of using a pinch-hitter. As usual, the Mets failed to capitalize with runners in scoring position and left it at 6-0.
Please Get a Hit
The Mets’ offense continued their theme of getting runners on base and leaving them there consistently. Despite scoring four runs, they went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left nine runners on base. They also continued their trend of struggling to hit the fastball. J.D. Davis was the poster child by striking out three times on the same up and in fastball.
All of those trends allowed Scherzer to survive through seven innings on a night where he did not have his best stuff. Scherzer pitched six innings, allowing two runs, and struck out seven when it seemed like he had runners on base every inning. Once Scherzer left the game, the lower-tier reliever made the game interesting for a short period. Darien Nunez left Edwin Uceta with a bases-loaded jam, with the Mets down by six in the seventh inning.
Davis ended up sending a majestic sacrifice fly to center field, which was about five feet from becoming a grand slam and completely changing the game. Instead, the sac fly took the win out of the Mets sails, and Jonathan Villar struck out to end the rally. Geoff Hartleib and a couple of position players allowed the Dodgers to turn it into a laugher and end any Mets hopes.
On Monday, the Mets drag themselves into San Francisco to play the best team in baseball in the Giants. The first pitch from Oracle Park is scheduled for 9:45 p.m. ET.