LOS ANGELES: Opportunity rang and the Mets fell asleep on the couch without answering the door.
In the Mets ’painful attempt to score runs, there is a list of reasons for their repeated failure. On Saturday, the wheel landed “horrible with runners in scoring position,” sending the Mets to their eighth loss in nine games, 4-3 to the Dodgers in Chavez’s ravine.
The Mets scored 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position on a day when they matched the Dodgers in hits (with eight) and managed to hit two homers. The loss was the third in four games since team owner Steve Cohen sent a frustrating tweet on Wednesday about his “unproductive.”
On that day, there was no greater missed opportunity than the fifth, when JD Davis attacked with the bases loaded against Max Scherzer. But the Mets also had chances to score in the first, fourth and ninth innings that went unanswered.
In their last attempt, against Kenley Jansen in the ninth, Jeff McNeil and Pete Alonso came out successively with the potential to tie at second base.
Alonso’s third goal scorer, with a two-run shot in the seventh, got the Mets within 4-3. McNeil tied at two (a second time in a row at the base of the game for the fallen second baseman) before Alonso finished clearing the left field fence for the 28th home run this season.
Brandon Nimmo’s two homers in the fifth gave the Mets their first run. Still, it was followed by a missed opportunity against Scherzer: after the Mets loaded the bases, Davis threw in the 103rd and final throw of the day for Scherzer, a 96-mph fast ball. It was the second straight loss with bases loaded by Davis, who was caught watching strike three in the eighth inning on Friday night with a one-shot defeat.
Rich Hill gave the Mets five innings, in which he allowed three runs won in six hits with two attacks. In six appearances since arriving from Rays in the trade deadline, the left-hander has reached an ERA of 6.23. He hasn’t recorded any outings beyond the fifth inning since June 29, while still pitching in Tampa Bay.
Hill, facing the team for which he pitched from 2016-19, allowed the home runs alone in the first against Trea Turner and Albert Pujols put the Mets in a 2-0 hole. In the fourth, Chris Taylor deepened with two starts for the Dodgers ’third solo homer.
The Dodgers got a run in the sixth against Miguel Castro, who walked three straight hitters in the inning, including Chris Taylor with the bases loaded. Jeurys Family got three exits at the entrance without scoring any other runs.