Rays 10 Mets 8 (Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, FL)
Mets record: 16-16
Mets streak: Lost 1
WP - Shawn Armstrong (1-1)
LP - Jose Quintana (1-3)
SV - Jason Adam (2)
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.
This could have gone to a few players, but what better excuse for Ralph to talk to an old friend than Amed Rosario having a three hit night while driving in two and scoring twice in the Rays' 10-7 victory on Friday night.
Need to Know
After going eight innings in his last start, Jose Quintana only got eight outs as he was blasted for eight runs on ten hits to raise his ERA to 5.20 on the season.
Brett Baty had three hits on the night including his first two homer game in his major league career. He blasted a three run dinger in the second that nodoby saw, and a solo shot in the 9th off closer Jason Adam that had a trail on it.
The Mets scored four runs in the 5th to get the game close after Quintana was pulled. Francisco Lindor drove in two with a double and Pete Alonso doubled Lindor home to close the gap to 9-7. Pete's double broke an 0-for-19 stench.
After Baty's second home run in the 9th, Brandon Nimmo doubled to bring the tying run to the plate, but Starling Marte struck out on a pitch nowhere close to the zone to end the game.
Turning Point
The Mets have made it a habit of responding to crooked numbers with rallies of their own in 2024. But it was thrown back at them tonight as after Brett Baty's three run homer in the top of the second, the Rays responded by tying the game immediately in the bottom of the inning, capped off by Yandy Diaz's RBI single.
Three Keys
It Got Worse For Jose
As bad as the second inning was for Quintana, he completely unraveled in the third inning as he couldn't continue his momentum after his brilliant start against the Cardinals on Sunday.
Quintana was around the strike zone, throwing 42 strikes in 65 pitches. But they were hittible. His pitches did not have the same bite to them as they did in his last start.
The One Rule ... Is That There Are No Rules
The Rays had scored 30 runs in their previous ten games before tonight. They responded by scoring the most runs they've scored in a game all season as they tagged the Mets for ten tonight. A lot of their lineup got healthy, and that includes Randy Arozarena who was getting the Trea Turner treatment from Rays fans tonight with his .139 average coming into this game. He responded with a monster home run in the 4th.
A trend was turned on the other side of the ball too. The Rays came into the game with the third worst bullpen ERA in the majors at 4.36. After the Mets closed the gap to 9-7 and knocked Aaron Civale out of the game in the 5th, the Mets had 4 and 1/3 innings to do damage to that bullpen.
Save for Baty's dinger against Adam in the 9th, the Mets were quiet against that bullpen.
Baty's Big Night
It's always great to see a young player take a step like Baty took tonight with his first big league multi-homer game. It's a good excuse to show you his first home run, which was bizarre.
I guess that's why they need a new ballpark in St. Petersburg.