Orioles 2 - Mets 0 (Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, MD)
Mets record: 50-61
Mets streak: Lost 6
WP – Cionel Perez (4-1)
LP – Jose Quintana (0-3)
SV – Felix Bautista (30)
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.
Since coming off the IL, Quintana has made four starts and could have won each. Instead, he’s 0-3 with a no-decision, allowing nine earned runs in 23.2 innings (3.47 ERA). The Mets again hung him out to dry Sunday, when he allowed just two runs and struck out six in six-plus innings. Not only were they shut out, but the Mets defense failed Quintana when the Orioles scored their first run in the 5th inning.
Need to Know
*The Mets have lost a season-high six games in a row and were swept in this six-game post trade deadline road trip to Kansas City and Baltimore.
*They scored eight runs in the final five games of the trip after scoring six against the Royals on Tuesday. They were shut out twice on the trip.
*New York managed four hits and is now a season-worst 11 games under .500.
*Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte were not in the lineup.
*Pete Alonso produced four outs in his first two at-bats. He hit into inning ending double plays in the first and third innings. Alonso finished 0-for-3 with a walk.
*Speaking of killer at-bats, D.J. Stewart grounded into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded and two outs in the 5th inning, with the game scoreless.
*Brett Baty was the DH and was 0-for-2 with two walks. He is hitless in his past 19 at-bats.
Turning Point
With one out in the bottom of the 5th inning, the Orioles scored the game’s first run thanks to a pair of fielding miscues by the Mets. It was the only run they needed. Rafael Ortega misplayed a line drive to center, allowing speedster Jorge Mateo to reach third on what was ruled a triple. Unnerved, Quintana got the next batter, Adley Rutschman, to hit a ground ball right at third baseman Mark Vientos. However, in his haste to throw home, Vientos bobbled the ball and threw to first instead to retire Rutschman. Two plays that needed to be made. But they weren’t. It cost the Mets another game and undermined another solid outing by Quintana.
3 Keys
Ortega did make a fantastic diving catch in left center on a drive off the bat of Ramon Urias in the 4th inning. He also had one of New York’s four hits, a line drive single to right and was robbed of another on a diving stop by first baseman Ryan Mountcastle.
Vientos ripped a leadoff double to left in the 9th inning against Orioles closer Felix Bautista. Not surprisingly, the Mets didn’t come close to tying the game. Baty and pinch hitter Brandon Nimmo each flied weakly to left. And pinch hitter Daniel Vogelbach struck out to end the game. No surprises here as the Mets barely put up a fight again.
As bad as these six games have been since the selloff at the MLB trade deadline, it’s not as painful as how they lost games the first four months of the season. Watching Max Scherzer, Jeff McNeil, Marte -- even Alonso and Francisco Lindor -- underachieve as badly as they did was more discouraging than seeing Ortega or Vientos or Danny Mendick make key mistakes to lose games.