Mets go quietly again in shutout loss to Dodgers in Los Angeles
Mets outfielder Luis Robert Jr. reacts to a strike call during an MLB game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Credit: Icon Sportswire via Getty Images/Icon Sportswire
LOS ANGELES — Before the Mets took on the Dodgers on Monday, the scoreboard played a video championing Edwin Diaz’s defection to Chavez Ravine.
"There's a reason Edwin Diaz wanted to come here,” manager Dave Roberts says on screen. “He's chasing a ring.”
Somehow, things for the Mets only got more offensive from there.
David Peterson sputtered early, the offense did nothing as the Mets kicked off this six-game road trip with a 4-0 loss at Dodger Stadium's Uniqlo Field, their sixth in a row. They managed just three singles as starter Justin Wrobleski faced one over the minimum through eight, and Tanner Scott closed it out after working around Marcus Semien’s leadoff single.
The Mets haven’t scored a run in 20 innings.
“We need to score runs to win a game,” Semien said. “These types of stretches are going to happen. It’s tough when it happens early in the season. It’s tough when we’re not winning ballgames…When it doesn’t happen for you, it’s frustrating.”
Peterson (0-3), who struggled significantly over his first two starts, kept those red flags waving against the two-time world champion Dodgers, who came into the game batting an MLB-best .290. The lefty simply couldn’t find the plate in the first inning, nailing leadoff hitter Shohei Ohtani on the shoulder and walking Kyle Tucker on five pitches. Will Smith’s single scored Ohtani with the game’s opening run, and Peterson proceeded to walk Teoscar Hernandez before finally settling down.
In a baffling turn, Peterson struck out five of the next six batters and looked downright dominant in the second, showcasing better control and an improved slider. That slice of good news immediately evaporated in the third, when he let up three more runs. He again walked Tucker and, with one out, walked Hernandez, as well. Freddie Freeman hit into a forceout at second to bring up Andy Pages, who slammed a 2-and-0 hanging curveball 364 feet to left to give the Dodgers the 4-0 lead.
“Stuff-wise, it was probably the best we’ve seen,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of Peterson. “But even when he got ahead, there were three-ball counts and then he got behind, but the stuff itself was better.”
Peterson allowed four runs, five hits and four walks with seven strikeouts and threw 89 pitches, 55 for strikes. His ERA is now an unsightly 6.41.
The Mets' offense, hitting .236 against lefthanded pitching, kept that streak going against Wrobleski, who didn’t allow a baserunner until Jorge Polanco’s fifth-inning single (Polanco was erased on a double play). That was Polanco’s first hit against a southpaw this season, despite being a career .262 hitter against lefties. They didn’t get another hit until Francisco Alvarez’s single against Wrobleski in the eighth.
To be fair, they had some tough breaks — they hit seven balls 102 mph or harder, and none dropped in for hits.
“It’s a small sample size,” Mendoza said about the team’s lefthanded malaise. “I’m expecting that to change quickly here.”
It’s also one of the reasons they brought on Tommy Pham, who signed a minor-league contract earlier this year and was called up Monday in lieu of Ronny Mauricio, who was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse. Pham played leftfield and batted seventh, going 0-for-3.
Living in a no-Juan Soto world — the slugger still isn’t running after suffering a calf strain early this month but so far is still on track for a late-April return — they’ll need to compensate.
It isn’t going all that well. The offense came into the day batting .211/.255/.286 over the previous seven days. Unsurprisingly, Soto has been their best hitter this season, and was batting .355 with a homer and five RBIs before getting hurt.
“He’s the best lefthanded hitter in the game,” Semien said. “We miss him, but we need to get him right. We need to make sure he comes back healthy.”
Enter Pham. Though hardly a replacement, Mendoza likes him for two reasons: his professionalism and his ability to hit lefties. And that’s how the outfielder will primarily be used, he said.
He’s “competitor, a pro, [and] a guy that goes about his business the right way [in] the way he competes and how much he wants to win,” Mendoza said of Pham.
Added Pham, who played with the Mets in 2023: “I show up. I prepare. I’m just a pro. I know how to play the game. I love the game. That’s what you’re going to get. One thing I told myself this year, I’m going to go harder, I want to leave everything on the table. That’s what I got for you.”
Pham has a career .261/.368/.434 slash line against lefties, with 49 homers in 1,129 at-bats. By contrast, he has 100 homers against righties in almost triple the at-bats.
Though hardly an ideal situation, they hope Pham can provide a little oomph to the oomph-less.
“A lot of guys are hungry from what I see in preparation and everything,” Pham said. “I like that. It makes me go out there and work harder. You feed off one another.”
That may be true, but right now, no one wants what the Mets are eating.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
