Mets rocked to sleep as Marlins win series behind Alcantara

Marlins 5 Mets 1 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY)

Mets record: 73-64

Mets streak: Lost 2

WP - Sandy Alcantara (8-11)

LP - Kodai Senga (7-6)

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.

Sandy Alcantara looked like the Sandy Alcantara who won the Cy Young Award in '22, spinning seven innings while giving up one run and four hits while striking out six in a very flat 5-1 Marlins victory.

Need to Know

• With the loss and the Reds victory, the Mets' lead for the third wild card spot shrinks to four games.

• Kodai Senga pitched 4 and 2/3's innings for the second start in a row ... giving up five runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out six. Senga threw 43 strikes in 73 pitches.

• Jeff McNeil, who was 10-for-34 against Alcantara in his career coming into the game, went 2-for-3 against him today.

• Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto both stole their 26th base of the season.

• Brandon Waddell saved the bullpen by pitching the final 4 and 1/3 for the Mets, giving up three hits and walking two while stroking out four.

• Augustin Ramirez had two hits and two RBI, brought home by his two run homer off Senga. Xavier Edwards, Jacob Marsee, and Heriberto Hernandez also had two hits for the Marlins.

Turning Point

After a tough first inning, Kodai Senga seemed like he had righted the ship, striking out the side in the 2nd and was poised to keep the game at 1-0. Then he got the first two outs in the 3rd and seemed like he was in a rhythm. But then Senga gave up a two out double to Jacob Marsee, and then let the most dangerous Marlins hitter beat him.

Augustin Ramirez's two run HR didn't put the game out of reach, but considering the way Alcantara was going, 3-0 felt like 30-0.

Three Keys

At Least The Velocity Is Back

That's about the only thing that you can say positive about Kodai Senga, who hit 98 mph during the game. But his lack of control meant that 98.7 mph were coming in hitters counts, and were coming back at 112.8, much like Heribito Hernandez's single that made it 4-0 did in the 4th.

If Senga's troubles stretch to the end of the season, combined with struggles from guys like Sean Manaea and Clay Holmes, we're really trending towards a world where the Games 1 and 2 starters for the Mets in a potential wild card series are Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong.

We're all excited about the young pitchers, but that's a little absurd.

The River Runs Dry

Of course, 5-0 seemed like a drop in the bucket the way the Mets offense was going this series. But Alcantara reversed that trend by turning the clock back three seasons, as he has done in his last few starts.

Not even a rough start to the 7th inning which led to a bases clearing incident involving Mark Vientos could derail Alcantara.

Alcantara would go on to get three harmless outs that minimized the damage to just one run after that. He would dot the inside corner with a fastball that meekly retired Starling Marte to end that inning. I'll let you decide how damning it is that the Mets couldn't use that dustup to turn the game around.

A Three Phase Disaster

The Mets didn't get length from their starter, their offense ran dry, and in the third phase of the game the Mets were as sloppy as they've been this series. It was a three phase beatdown.

It all added up to a flat loss, and a series loss to the Miami Marlins, who hadn't won a series in New York since 2020. This was the team the Mets had to fatten up on with Detroit, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Texas coming up. they had better hope that their lead against the Reds is big enough. And if not, they should make sure that's the series that they find their mojo again.