Perhaps it’s a good time for the sputtering Mets to hightail it out of New York.
Unfortunately for them, the Mets will begin a six-game road trip on Monday in the opener of a three-game series against Shohei Ohtani and the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Heck, they might even see old friend Edwin Diaz as well.
New York was booed out of Citi Field after its feeble offense mustered all of four hits in a 1-0 setback Sunday to the Athletics, cementing the series sweep for the A’s. The shutout was the third of the season and second of the three-game series for the Mets, who have totaled nine runs during their five-game losing skid.
New York manager Carlos Mendoza tried to stay positive in the face of adversity.
“You just have to stay consistent. Stay positive with the guys,” Mendoza said. “… It’s just a bad stretch. You have to continue to trust the players, they’re really good (and) continue to work with them.”
Freddy Peralta turned in his first quality start of the season, with his only blemish coming on a solo homer by Nick Kurtz in the third inning.
“We are way better than this. We have a great team, we believe in each other. I know that we’re going to do better,” Peralta said.
“We love each other — we’re going to keep pushing hard to be better and win some games.”
New York’s David Peterson (0-2, 6.14 ERA) will take the mound on Monday against fellow left-hander Justin Wrobleski (1-0, 4.00) of Los Angeles.
Peterson answered a strong season-opening outing by surrendering five earned runs in each of his past two trips to the mound. He absorbed his second straight loss after yielding six hits in five innings of a 7-2 setback to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday.
Peterson, 30, is 2-0 with a 4.45 ERA in six career appearances (five starts) versus the Dodgers.
He would be wise to tread carefully around Ohtani, who homered to lead off Los Angeles’ half of the first inning for the second straight day in Sunday’s 5-2 setback to the Texas Rangers. The homer was Ohtani’s fifth of the season and extended his on-base streak to 46 games dating back to last year.
Kyle Tucker added an RBI single for the Dodgers, who lost for just the second time in nine games.
Wrobleski pocketed his first win of the season last Monday after working around control issues in a 14-2 shellacking of the Toronto Blue Jays. He overcame four walks to yield just one run on two hits in five innings.
Wrobleski, 25, has yet to face the Mets in his career.
Should all go well for the Dodgers, perhaps they’ll turn to Diaz in the late going on Monday.
Signed to a three-year, $69 million contract after spending his previous six seasons with the Mets, Diaz blew a save on Friday after allowing three runs on four hits in one inning against the Rangers. He got the win, however, when Max Muncy hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.
“I think I didn’t have my life on my fastball, and I couldn’t command my slider the way I wanted to,” Diaz said. “I was feeling good. But I didn’t have my best stuff that day. That’s part of the game. I just flush it right away.”
–Field Level Media
–Field Level Media
