Mets' Carson Benge homers twice but Huascar Brazoban, Jonah Tong get battered in loss in Seattle
Mets starting pitcher Huascar Brazoban reacts after giving up a two-run home run during the second inning against the Mariners on Tuesday in Seattle. Credit: AP/Stephen Brashear
SEATTLE — It was the case of an excruciatingly stoppable force against a historically immovable object. In other words, the Mets weren’t facing the Marlins pitching staff anymore, and their offense sputtered to a halt.
After an offensively dominant three-game set against their NL East rivals this past weekend, the Mets on Tuesday were exposed by a far more formidable maritime foe — one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. And again, they weren’t up to snuff.
The Mariners — this time keyed by starter Logan Gilbert — carved up the Mets for the second night in a row as they fell, 8-3, at T-Mobile Park. A day after managing just two hits (both homers) in 10 innings, the Mets cobbled together five. The lone bright spot was Carson Benge, who hit two home runs, accounting for all of the Mets’ offense.
The Mariners are winners of eight in a row, pitching to a 1.92 ERA during the streak.
Jonah Tong came in after opener Huascar Brazoban, and struggled, allowing five runs (four earned), five hits and two walks, with four strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings, though he was burned by back-to-back errors in the third. One of those came courtesy of Mark Vientos, who had an overall lousy day on both sides of the ball, committing a few other miscues and going 0-for-4, with a rally-killing sixth-inning double play.
“He’s been on and off,” Carlos Mendoza said of Vientos’ defense. “There have been stretches where you see him play well defensively and then a couple of plays tonight, routine plays [he doesn’t make]. There’s some inconsistency there at times.”
And whatever mirage was on display during their recent four-game win streak — they scored 29 runs in that span — has been washed away by a Mariners pitching staff with the second-best ERA in the American League. The Mets, meanwhile, continue to have the lowest OPS in baseball.
The Mariners went ahead early on Patrick Wisdom’s second inning, two-run homer off Brazoban, who put on one more runner before ceding the mound to Tong, who struck out the final batter to end the threat.
Then two more rookies took Brazoban off the hook in the third, when A.J. Ewing doubled and Benge homered to tie the game at 2.
But a series of misadventures in the bottom of the third allowed the Mariners to reclaim the lead. With one out, Randy Arozarena’s ground ball was bobbled by Marcus Semien, who then rushed a throw far above Vientos’ head, allowing Arozarena to scurry all the way to second. Luke Raley then hit a ball that took a tough hop right off the lip of Vientos’ glove for a second error, chasing Arozarena home with the go-ahead run.
Overall, Vientos has -3 fielding run value, according to Baseball Savant, which is ranked 61st out of 65 first basemen. He believes his defense is “pretty good,” he said. “I’ve done a pretty good job over there. I’ve been working.”
Of the Semien ball, “I just jumped and missed it,” he said. Of the second, “that one took a bad hop,” he said. “I thought a put a good glove on it.”
The Mariners made it 4-2 in the fourth, when Tong loaded the bases with one out on two walks and a single. Julio Rodriguez drove the lead runner in with a sacrifice fly, but Tong stranded the rest when he got Arozarena to fly out to center.
The Mariners, though, put the hammer down in the fifth: Tong allowed back-to-back one-out singles to Cole Young and Dominic Canzone and then, with two outs, engaged in a nine-pitch battle with Jhonny Pereda.
Pereda won.
The catcher turned on a cutter right inside the zone and blasted it 388 feet to left for a three-run homer, putting the Mariners up 7-2.
Gilbert, though, threw Benge a fastball down the middle to lead off the sixth, which Benge slammed into the stands in center to draw the Mets to within four, marking the first multi-home run game of his young career. A one-out single from Juan Soto later that inning, followed by a walk to Jared Young finally chased Gilbert from the game. But no matter, it took Eduard Bazardo a single pitch to get Vientos to ground into the 5-4-3 double play.
“We’ve got to start playing better,” Mendoza said. “That’s the bottom line. Until we start playing consistent baseball, that’s the only way to get out of this.”
Notes & quotes: Francisco Alvarez (torn meniscus) went 2-for-3 with two doubles and an RBI in his rehab game with Triple-A Syracuse. The goal is to have him catch a complete game and then maybe back-to-backs before activating him, Mendoza said ... Jorge Polanco (ankle) may potentially be activated on Friday; he’ll play in back-to-back rehab games Tuesday and Wednesday before the Mets make a determination. He’ll primarily serve as a designated hitter upon his return as he’ll have to manage his ankle bursitis throughout the season, Mendoza said.
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.
