Juan Soto breaks up no-hitter in 9th inning, but Mets still lose to Guardians
Juan Soto of the New York Mets against the Cleveland Guardians at Citi Field on Wednesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
There was time, amid Gavin Williams’ 126 pitches, for the Mets to figure out what has so plagued an offense that boasts some of the best hitters in baseball.
There was time to note that the hulking Guardians righthander was throwing curveballs below the strike zone to lefties, and getting them to swing at high fastballs, and time to note how he was using his two-seamer for chase against righties.
And they did see these things. And it didn’t make a whiff of difference, as Williams no-hit the Mets for 8 1⁄3 innings en route to a 4-1 loss Wednesday afternoon at Citi Field. With the sweep, the Mets have lost eight of their last nine games.
“We know we’re better than that,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We just couldn’t make any adjustments — a lot of empty at-bats there. As good as [Williams] was, I feel like he gave us a few good pitches to hit and we missed it . . . We go in with a game plan, and we haven’t been able to make adjustments as they make adjustments to us as a whole, as a team.”
Juan Soto broke up the no-hitter with one out in the ninth, when he rocketed Williams’ 1-and-0 fastball 420 feet to straightaway center, and just over the outstretched glove of Angel Martinez, who climbed the wall in an attempt to make the desperation grab.
Martinez slumped onto the warning track as the ball hit the black batter’s eye.
Williams, 26 and in his third big-league season, walked four and struck out six and departed with two outs in the ninth to a modest standing ovation from a crowd of 40,072.
Until Soto’s home run, the Mets hadn’t had a baserunner since the fourth inning. Francisco Lindor struck out swinging to lead off the ninth and Soto homered to bring up Alonso, who’s one shy of Darryl Strawberry’s club record 252 homers. Alonso flied out and Brandon Nimmo walked, ending Williams’ stellar afternoon.
“I really don’t know what’s going on,” Soto said. “But we definitely have the talent and the guys are capable of doing real damage here so I think, one day, it’s going to turn around . . . We have to be better.”
David Peterson (7-5) allowed four runs and five hits with two walks and seven strikeouts over six innings, though the last run was partially due to a misplay by Soto in right. The other Guardians runs came on a pair of homers, a solo shot from David Fry in the second and a two-run blast from Martinez in the third.
Peterson is the only Mets pitcher to go six or more innings in the last 50 games, having done so eight times in that span.
Soto’s blast, meanwhile, ruined what would have been Cleveland’s first no-hitter since Len Barker did it on May 15, 1981; the Mets hadn’t gotten no-hit since having it happen twice in 2015. The Mets also didn’t record a hit in the final five innings of Tuesday’s 3-2 loss.
And that, really, is the big issue, and one that Mendoza, hitting coaches Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes, and established hitters in this lineup are trying to parse.
Asked about his coaches, Mendoza replied that everything starts with him. “We’re in this together,” he said. “I’m not going to point fingers here.”
But he acknowledged there’s a disconnect between the game plan and the execution, though they’re still trying to figure out why.
“Those are some of the conversations that we continue to have,” he said. “Right now, our coaches are working really hard. They continue to have discussions with players but at the end of the day, we’ve got to go out there and do it.”
In-game communication between the coaches and players is fluid, Mendoza said, and hitters are consistently seen reviewing opposing pitchers in the dugout. But it hasn’t yielded fruit: Their .239 team batting average is 23rd in the majors, and they’re hitting just .231 with runners in scoring position, better than only the White Sox and Mariners. They routinely get behind in the count, miss pitches to hit, and are then forced to chase (Mendoza’s repeated assessment this season).
“When you see guys taking pitches to hit, when you see guys in between, we’re not seeing conviction,” he said. “We’ve got to go out there with conviction.”
How to achieve that is a bit more of a conundrum — an ill-timed one, too, as they head to Milwaukee to face the hottest team in baseball.
“As a group, we have to come through better and we have to [make] the adjustments,” Soto said. “No one said it was going to be easy to go all the way. It’s a challenge. We’ve just got to go out there and take it from them. No one is going to bring the trophy over here and give it to us.”
Added Mendoza: “We’ve got to flip the script . . . We’ve got to find a way to turn the switch.”
Now, if only anyone could find the button.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
