Things were looking a bit better for the struggling Mets.
Despite falling to the Rockies on a late-inning grand slam on Thursday afternoon, they showed some positives and took the first two series of their nine-game road trip.
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This weekend in Arizona, though, all of that was quickly erased.
The Mets were able to salvage the series opener on Friday night thanks to Mark Vientos and some late-inning heroics, but otherwise the shorthanded offense wasted more strong pitching.
Clay Holmes followed that by put together 5.2 innings of two-run ball on Saturday, only to be handed his second loss of the season as the bats managed just a run on three hits.
Despite facing struggling right-hander Merrill Kelly, who came into the night with a 9.95 ERA on the season, they didn’t record a baserunner after the top of the fifth.
That stretch would carry into the fourth inning on Sunday afternoon, as 22 consecutive Mets were set down in order before Juan Soto drew a leadoff walk, which tied their season-high drought.
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While the perfect game was broken up, Arizona southpaw Eduardo Rodriguez kept his no-hit bid intact until Carson Benge laced a single with one out in the top of the sixth.
Luis Torrens followed that with a double to breakup the shutout as well, but the D-backs answered back with three unearned runs in the bottom-half to put this one away for good.
Rodriguez finished just two outs shy of his first career complete game, allowing just three walks and four hits.
“He was hitting his spots,” Soto said. “He was throwing the ball well, he was being careful with the big guys and being aggressive with guys he thought he could be aggressive to.”
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That’s been the case of late with the Mets lacking many big threats in their shorthanded offense.
After winning four of six games to open their first road trip in May, they finished it off by losing three of the last four, scoring just seven runs over that span.
“We’re better than that,” Carlos Mendoza said. “Especially the past couple of days, we needed to be better.”
