The New York Mets have scored a total of four runs in a four-game losing streak, and now they must face one of the hottest starting pitchers in the game.
The Mets will try to snap out of their slump on Tuesday, when they host the Cincinnati Reds in the middle game of a three-game series.
Left-hander David Peterson (3-4, 5.03 ERA) is slated to start for the Mets against surging Reds right-hander Chase Burns (6-1, 1.83).
New York’s skid continued on Monday when Nolan McLean endured his second straight subpar start as the Reds rolled to a 7-2 win.
The loss was the sixth in seven games for the Mets, whose battered lineup grew even leaner when Juan Soto missed his second straight game on Monday due to an illness.
Four members of the Mets’ Opening Day lineup are on the injured list: catcher Francisco Alvarez (right knee), shortstop Francisco Lindor (left calf), first baseman Jorge Polanco (left Achilles) and center fielder Luis Robert Jr. (back). Only Polanco appears to be closing in on a rehab assignment.
The Mets appeared to be rounding into form when they opened May with 11 wins in 16 games, a span in which they outscored the opposition 86-58. However, New York was outscored 35-16 over the past seven games, a stretch in which the Mets collected just 11 extra-base hits.
New York had two extra-base hits on Monday — a sixth-inning homer by Marcus Semien, who batted cleanup despite entering the game with an .560 OPS, and a seventh-inning double by Brett Baty, who eventually scored on Carson Benge’s groundout.
“You look at a night like tonight, we got nine hits (and) two runs,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It’s hard to score three or four of them by just singles. You’ve got to be able to drive the ball. Right now, we’re having a hard time doing that.”
The Reds’ offense continued stirring on Monday, when it had just six hits but scored at least seven runs for the third time in four games. Cincinnati scored at least seven runs only three times in its first 18 games this month.
The Reds scored twice while collecting one hit in the second inning of the series opener. JJ Bleday homered in the third — his seventh round-tripper in 25 games since joining Cincinnati on April 26 — before Spencer Steer hit a two-run single and Tyler Stephenson delivered a two-run homer in consecutive fourth-inning at-bats.
“If you can put up runs early, it just gives our pitchers confidence and (you) kind of can relax a little bit in a way like, ‘OK, let’s keep pressing, let’s keep putting up runs,'” Bleday said. “But in the back of your mind (you know) we’re in a good spot.”
Burns hasn’t needed much help while going unbeaten in his past seven starts, a span in which he is 5-0 with a 1.27 ERA and 46 strikeouts over 42 2/3 innings. The 23-year-old won his third straight start in his most recent outing on May 19, when he gave up one run and struck out nine over six innings as the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1.
Burns has never opposed the Mets.
Peterson has won his past three decisions, most recently prevailing when he allowed one run over five innings as the Mets edged the Washington Nationals 2-1 on Thursday. He is 1-1 with a 4.88 ERA in five career starts against the Reds.
–Field Level Media
