BOSTON — It’s undoubtedly not April anymore.
Final month, the Mets may do virtually no flawed and once they did, they had been in a position to overcome their very own errors with hustle performs and resilient comebacks. Now, they’re going through the adversity they all the time knew would come.
Kodai Senga gave up three earned runs for the primary time since 2023 and the Mets didn’t capitalize with runners in scoring place in a 3-1 loss to the Boston Purple Sox on Monday evening at Fenway Park.
The Mets (29-18) have gone 5-5 over their final 10 video games and their NL East lead is abruptly in peril.
“Obviously we’re not getting the job done with runners in scoring position,” mentioned supervisor Carlos Mendoza. “We’re having a hard time executing in those situations. We had a couple of opportunities there with first and second with less than two outs, and we couldn’t come through.”
The offense went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring place and stranded six. As a complete, the Mets are hitting simply .218 with runners in scoring place this season.
“At times, I feel like we’re taking really good pitches to hit and being passive, and then at times chasing,” Mendoza mentioned, “So we’ve got to start executing.”
Proper because it approached the notorious wall, it grew to become clear that it was too quick to go the space. It banked off the wall and Soto needed to dash to get to first, settling for a protracted single, although he made up for it by swiping second base.
Soto was additionally criticized for not working exhausting out of the field Sunday within the Bronx in a loss to the Yankees. It wasn’t search for a participant who’s already the topic of intense scrutiny. Mendoza mentioned will tackle the difficulty with Soto, however finally, he trusts that his participant is aware of when he’s hit a pitch out of the park.
“We’ll talk to him about it tonight,” Mendoza mentioned. “Obviously, if someone knows when he gets ahold of one, it’s Juan. He thought he had it, with a win and all that. And in this ballpark — anywhere, but in particular, in this one — with that wall right there, you;ve got to get out of the box. So, yeah, well, we’ll discuss that.”
Soto didn’t appear to suppose a lot of it, saying he hit the ball exhausting and tried to get to second base, however finally needed to cease at first.
“No, I think I was hustling very hard,” Soto mentioned. “If you could see it today, you could tell.”
Folks across the Mets suppose the narrative round Soto is overblown. The correct fielder doesn’t take his personal airplane to video games, as Karl Ravech mentioned on ESPN’s Sunday Night time Baseball broadcast, and there’s no indication that he dislikes his teammates in Queens, and he’s well-respected within the clubhouse.
The rumors are one thing Soto and the Mets should reside with this season.
Soto went 1-for-3. Tyrone Taylor and Francisco Alvarez every went 2-for-3 with a double.
“Sometimes you’ve got give credit to the pitchers,” Soto mentioned. “They’ve been doing a really good job throwing strikes on and executing their pitches.”
Senga (4-3) struggled with the wind early on, permitting three runs over the primary two innings. He settled in and was in a position to go six full innings, telling Mendoza he was good after 5.
Coming into the collection, Senga was placing up Cy Younger Award-caliber numbers with a 1.02 ERA. The Purple Sox ambushed him, swinging early in counts and swinging at his forkball. Rattled from the beginning, he took ball 1 earlier than even throwing a pitch due to a forgotten PitchCom. Senga then gave up a leadoff double to Jarren Duran, walked Rafael Devers and threw a wild pitch to advance the runners.
It didn’t assist that the protection wasn’t crisp both.
“I’ve pitched in a stadium with a lot of wind before in Japan, but it’s been, it’s been a while, so maybe I was thinking about it a little too much in terms of mechanics,” Senga mentioned. “Throughout the game, I was able to adjust a little bit, and that latter half, I was able to find it.”
The Mets reduce it to 3-1 within the third with the underside of the order combining for a run. That they had two on in opposition to right-hander Hunter Dobbins, however he received Soto to floor right into a double play to finish the inning.
It was the ninth time this season Soto grounded right into a double play; he did that solely 10 instances final season.
Once more, there have been probabilities within the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, however Boston supervisor Alex Cora deftly navigated the bullpen, making the best selections on the proper instances, and the Purple Sox (24-25) held on to win.
“They’re going to go through it at times,” Mendoza mentioned. “And right now, they’re fighting.”
Initially Printed: Could 19, 2025 at 9:47 PM EDT
