Christian Scott Lives Up to Hype in Mets Loss to Rays

On a day where Christian Scott was impressive and battled through a tough beginning to his outing, the New York Mets dropped another game and another series with a 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. Scott came to play, and so did Starling Marte and Reed Garrett, but that was all. It’s the third series the Mets have lost in their last four, and they are now back under the .500 mark at 16-17. They are now 4-9 in their last 13 games.

May 4, 2024; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; New York Mets starting pitcher Christian Scott (45) throws a pitch against the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports

Meet The New Met

While the rest of the Mets won’t remember this game fondly, their new pitcher will. In his home state and in front of his family, Scott went 6 2/3 innings (was a strike away from going a full 7 innings) with 6 strikeouts. He allowed 5 hits, 1 run, and 1 walk. Scott’s first inning could’ve been the sign of a short debut after he allowed three consecutive hits to begin his day and was down 1-0 immediately. From there, he showed his moxy and confidence by striking out Randy Arozarena and then got Harold Ramírez to ground into an inning-ending double play. He escaped what could’ve been a nightmare first-inning and turned a possible short outing into a quality one. His fastball and slider were impressive, and he set a Mets season-high in whiffs with 18. It’s an outing he hopes to build off of.

Offense A Dud Yet Again

That 15-game stretch from April 5th to April 20th was a nice glimpse into what the Mets could potentially be. Since then, however, the offense has been mostly ice-cold. They’ve scored 2 runs or fewer seven times in their last 13 games. Just this week alone, the offense got three gems from Scott, Luis Severino, and José Buttó, and they couldn’t score as the Mets went 0-3 in these games. They even got shutout in Buttó’s outing. An RBI single from Marte, who got two hits on the day and got on base a third time with a walk, was all the Mets offense could muster up for Scott.

They got the leadoff hitter on base in the top of the 6th and 7th innings, and couldn’t bring him in. They were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and that has become a trend over the last 13 games. Pete Alonso, who struck out twice on Saturday, continues to struggle. The Mets also are not getting as much out of J.D. Martinez so far (1 RBI in 9 games). Martinez has 11 strikeouts as well. The Mets offense as a whole struck out 10 times on Saturday and are having trouble hitting a Rays bullpen that was struggling coming into this series.

Mets Bullpen Falters Again

For the second time this week, the Mets bullpen faltered, but for the second time, it really wasn’t their fault for the loss Saturday night. Just like on Monday against the Chicago Cubs, the Mets’ offense struggled while the starting pitcher was good. However, because the offense had trouble scoring runs, the bullpen was asked to cover for it. Against the Cubs, it was Edwin Díaz who gave up a two-run home run to Christopher Morel. On Saturday, it was Adam Ottavino and Sean Reid-Foley who each walked in a run with the bases loaded that sealed a 3-1 Mets loss. Once again, walks hurt the Mets pitching.

The Mets bullpen has been asked to cover a lot of the teams’ deficiencies so far this season. They’ve been the one consistent aspect with a starting pitching rotation that hasn’t been giving them innings and an offense trying to find its rhythm. It eventually gets tough for them to be a perfect game in and game out, and bullpens get taxed. Things are more difficult for them now with no Drew Smith and Brooks Raley but regardless, the Mets starting pitching and offense have to become more consistent and start helping out this bullpen.

Stat Of The Game 

The Tampa Bay Rays whiffed on 18 pitches from Christian Scott in his major league debut. The 18 whiffs are the most any Mets pitcher has thrown in a start this season.

Player Of The Game: Christian Scott

Nobody else was going to be named player of this game, win or lose, other than Scott. Starting pitching needed a spark and he provided that in his debut. Scott showed resiliency and toughness with nasty stuff.

On Deck

The Mets look to salvage this series on Sunday as Severino takes the hill against Ryan Pepiot of the Rays. The game will be televised locally on SNY at 1:40 p.m. EDT.

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