From roaring to snoring, Mets drop series to Astros as offense, bullpen take a power nap

Astros 6 Mets 3 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY)

Mets record: 61-76

Mets streak: Lost 1

WP - Ethan Pecko (1-0)

LP - Jonathan Pintaro (2-1)

SV - Josh Hader (21)

Seat on the Korner: Jeremy Pena

We select a Star of the Game and virtually invite him to take his Seat on the Korner — just as Ralph Kiner did on WOR-TV Channel 9 during the early days of the New York Mets.

Continuing the tradition of Rheingold Beer sponsoring Kiner’s Korner, this season every seat is proudly presented by The Main Event Restaurant & Sports Bar.

With locations in Plainview and Farmingdale, The Main Event features 80+ HD TVs, fresh daily seafood, and Black Angus certified steaks—so you never have to choose between great food and the big game.

I struggled a little bit with this, because you could have gone with LaMonte Wade Jr. who hit the go-ahead home run for the Astros as a pinch hitter. But Pena drove in the first two runs on a homer and a single, steering the game in the Astros direction two different times in what would be a 6-3 Astros victory.

Need to Know

• Jeremy Pena's leadoff homer against Zac Thornton was the 8th run out of 20 that he's given up in the first inning.

• Zac Thornton gave up two runs on six hits and no walks while striking out five in his five innings of work.

• LeMonte Wade Jr.'s pinch hit homer in the 6th was the third pinch hit HR of his career.

• Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto led off the game with home runs. For the Mets, it was the first time since October 4th, 2022 that the feat had happened. (Brandon Nimmo, Lindor, and Jeff McNeil all hit home runs to start the game against Washington.)

• Bo Bichette went 2-for-3 and would be the only Met with a multiple hit game.

• Ethan Pecko, in his third career start, threw five innings giving up three runs on three hits and two walks while striking out four. After the leadoff back-to-back home runs by Lindor and Soto, Pecko gave up one hit the rest of the way in what would be his first career victory.

• In addition to Pena, Jose Altuve (2-for-5) and Nick Allen (3-for-4) had mulitple hit games for the Astros.

• The Astros are now 15-4 against the Mets since the start of the 2017 season.

Turning Point

Thornton had put in five good innings and left the bullpen with a 3-2 lead. The post-deadline bullpen has been surprisingly strong since the exodus. Today though, Jonathan Pintaro gave up a pinch-hit homer to LaMonte Wade Jr. which turned the game around and give the Astros the lead for good.

It was Wade's third pinch hit homer of his career.

Three Keys

The Fruit Stripe Mets

The Mets led off the game with two home runs and a single.

They got two hits the rest of the game.

Two.

There have been too many games like this in 2026. A flurry at the start, and then a long drought of boredom. They're the Fruit Stripe gum of baseball teams.

A Throw to Corona

The Astros leaded the bases in the 7th inning with Daulton Varsho at the plate. Varsho grounded to Jared Young who stepped on first for the second out. Then he tried to throw home to get the tag out for the double play. Instead ...

Two runs scored to give the Astros the comfort they needed. If you got Game 5 Lucas Duda flashbacks during this play, you may be entitled to compensation.

The One Chance

The Astros did their best to give this back to the Mets in the 8th with two two-out walks to set up Carson Benge as the tying run. Joe Espada brought in Steven Okert for the lefty-lefty matchup. After the count went 3-0, Benge popped up to end the threat. That was the last, best chance for the Mets to make it interesting.