Adrian Houser picked up Saturday where he left off in his last start.
That was bad news for the Mets.
The right-hander surrendered four of his six earned runs in the first inning of Saturday’s 7-4 loss to the Cardinals at Citi Field, putting the Mets in an early hole they couldn’t climb out of.
St. Louis rocked Houser for nine hits — including four doubles — over 4.1 innings, inflating his ERA to 8.37. Houser heard boos from some of the 32,332 fans in attendance throughout the afternoon, including as he departed in the top of the fifth inning.
Down 6-0, the Mets answered with a four-run bottom of the fifth — highlighted by the 200th home run of Pete Alonso’s career — against Cardinals ace Sonny Gray, but they failed to score the rest of the game.
Houser’s first-inning issues were particularly notable considering he gave up six runs in his final inning of work in his last start — an April 21 loss to the Dodgers. Houser was charged with eight runs over four innings in that 10-0 defeat in Los Angeles.
“The way I’m pitching right now is pretty unacceptable,” said Houser, who fell to 0-3.
“The command overall, it doesn’t feel like it was last year,” he said. “It could be the one thing that I’m missing right now, so I need to lock that in, look at some video, check it out and see what we’ve got.”
Acquired by the Mets in an offseason trade with Milwaukee, Houser entered Saturday’s start eminently familiar with the Cardinals, who share the NL Central with the Brewers. Houser, 31, spent his first seven seasons with Milwaukee and began the day with a 3.07 ERA over 70.1 career innings against St. Louis.
But the Cardinals wasted no time getting to Houser on Saturday, rallying for five hits in the first inning alone, including an RBI single by Nolan Arenado, a two-run double by Paul Goldschmidt and a run-scoring single by prized prospect Masyn Winn.
Despite his struggles, Houser’s rotation spot isn’t in jeopardy, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.
“Our job is to get him back on track,” Mendoza said. “He’s part of our rotation. I know [pitching coach Jeremy Hefner] is working really hard, and he is too.”
Wearing their concrete-gray “NYC” jerseys for the first time, the Mets offense was M.I.A. until Brandon Nimmo delivered a two-run single against Gray in the fifth inning to cut the deficit to 6-2.
Alonso followed with a two-run blast, making him the fourth Met to hit 200 home runs — a list that also includes Darryl Strawberry, Mike Piazza and David Wright. Alonso achieved the feat in 710 games. Only Ryan Howard (658), Aaron Judge (671) and Ralph Kiner (706) reached the milestone faster.
“That’s really kind of mind-boggling,” Alonso said of his historic pace. “That’s really cool. It’s really cool, and I just want to keep continuing to put good at-bats together and help my team win.”
Gray, who pitched parts of two seasons with the Yankees, settled down from there and ended up with nine strikeouts over six innings. Three of those strikeouts came against Francisco Lindor, who finished the day 0-for-5 with four strikeouts.
Lindor’s final K sparked controversy, as he appeared to reach first base on a passed ball in the eighth inning, only to be ruled out for running out of the baseline. An animated Lindor shouted at the umpire in frustration and was restrained as Carlos Mendoza rushed onto the field and argued to no avail.
Afterward, Mendoza and Lindor both acknowledged the call was correct.
Lindor represented the winning run when he came up in the ninth inning with the bases loaded, but he popped out on Ryan Helsley’s first pitch — a 101-mph fastball — to end the game.
“When you have four strikeouts, you swing,” said Lindor, who is now batting .198. “I thought it was a good pitch for me to hit. It was a pitch right there. I just missed it.”
The Mets have now lost the first two games in their three-game set against St. Louis, dropping them to 13-13. They’ll turn to Jose Quintana (1-2, 4.21 ERA) on Sunday afternoon in an attempt to stave off a sweep. Lance Lynn (1-0, 2.81 ERA) is scheduled to start for St. Louis.