Darvish brilliant as Mets are swept away in the San Diego tide

Padres 5 Mets 0 (Petco Park, San Diego, CA)

Mets record: 62-47

Mets streak: Lost 3

WP - Yu Darvish (1-3)

LP - Clay Holmes (9-6)

Seat on the Korner:

We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.

Coming into today's game, Yu Darvish was 5-1 against the Mets in his career with an ERA of 3.23 in 64 innings and, more impressively, a WHIP of 0.875. Today, Darvish allowed just two lonely hits and no walks in 7 innings to improve on those numbers and lead the Padres to a sweep of the Mets on Wednesday afternoon at Petco Park.

Need to Know

• With the loss, the Mets are now 7-13 in San Diego since 2019, 18-26 since 2012, 28-46 since 2003, and 33-54 since 2000.

• The Mets were swept in San Diego for the first time since 2008 (which was a four game series.)

• After taking a 5-1 lead in the first game of this series, the Mets were outscored by San Diego 16-2.

• Clay Holmes was touched up good by the Padres, giving up four runs (two earned) on 8 hits, two walks and two HBP in 3 and 2/3's. It's Holmes' shortest outing of the season.

• Reed Garrett relieved Holmes in the 4th. For Gerrett it's his earliest appearance of the season.

• Francisco Alvarez left the game after the 5th inning as he was hit by a foul ball that ricocheted off his mask by his ear.

• Luis Arraez went 2-for-4 to improve on his .420 lifetime average against the Mets coming into the game. Arraez had 5 hits in 11 at-bats in this series with 2 RBI and a walk.

Turning Point

Clay Holmes was having a Clay Holmes outing. getting in and out of trouble while running his pitch count up. He gave up two runs in the 2nd after getting the first two hitters out. He also got the first two hitters out in the 3rd, but a Francisco Lindor throwing error gave the Padres another chance, and Gavin Sheets provided the third inning dagger.

Holmes also got the first two hitters out in the 4th before giving up giving up a single and hitting Jake Cronenworth before he was pulled by Carlos Mendoza.

Three Keys

Wild Card Vibes

You probably remember how Max Scherzer got hammered against the Padres in Game 1 of their wild card series with the Padres in 2022. I remember it, because I was there. And I maintain that even though the Mets tied the series and had a winner take all 3rd game, the series was lost when their ace got hammered in Game 1.

You might not remember that Yu Darvish was brilliant in Game 1, throwing 7 innings of one run ball against the Mets and gave them no hope of climbing out of the hole that Scherzer created. He was even better today, throwing 7 shutout innings and giving the Mets the same amount of hope he did back in October of '22.

Clay Pigeon

Clay Holmes started the season great. But whether it was a matter of him running his pitch count high or in some cases, Mendoza being careful with him as he transitioned from closer to starter, Holmes just couldn't take that next step into being a guy that you could rely on for six or seven innings a start.

To be fair, it's been hard for any starter not named Peterson to do that. But Holmes has been in the rotation the entire season, unlike guys like Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas and Kodai Senga. I'm sure that Holmes will tell you how frustrated he is that he hasn't been able to be more than a five inning pitcher.

The extra pitches, the loss of control, and the regression against hitters with runners in scoring position have done Holmes in during his past few starts.

Humanity

Not having Juan Soto due to injury, losing Alvarez in the 5th inning, and having sent down Huascar Brazoban down to lengthen himself out, the Mets were already shorthanded. With the news that Jose Butto, along with two prospects, were being traded to the Giants, it put them in more of a bind after Holmes couldn't escape the 4th.

In itself it wasn't the biggest deal in the world as the Mets could certainly get by without Brazoban and Butto with the day off tomorrow. (And with Darvish shutting the Mets offense down, Holmes going six innings might not have mattered anyway.) But witnessing Butto's realization that he was being traded to the Giants in real time was certainly a reminder that there are human beings involved, and that trades are tough when the guys getting traded are experiencing this in front of a live television audience for the first time.

It's not like it's anything we haven't seen before.