The Mets have adopted “OMG” as their summer theme song, but Tuesday night at Citi Field the more appropriate tune was “Yakety Sax.”
It was a comedy of errors for the Mets at times during a 9-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. There were balls that dribbled under gloves, misread fly balls and even one that was caught, bobbled and caught again.
But the biggest mistakes were two pitches left-hander Jose Quintana made to Anthony Santander and former Mets catcher James McCann that went for home runs to help the Orioles go up 7-1 on the Mets.
The Amazins’ came back to cut the lead to just two in the bottom of the eighth, scoring four runs off of an RBI double by Brandon Nimmo and a three-run homer by J.D. Martinez off right-hander Burch Smith. Right-hander Yennier Cano came in after the home run and retired Pete Alonso and Harrison Bader to end the threat.
But then in the top of the ninth, with two on and one out, Gunnar Henderson lined one off left-hander Danny Young right past Nimmo in left field. Nimmo chased the ball down and threw home, but overthrew the catcher. Young picked up the ball and fired to third to get the second runner but threw it wild. Nimmo fielded the ball and threw home once again and Alvarez threw to third to try to get Henderson.
He was safe. Two runs scored and the Orioles (74-53) pushed the game out of reach for the Mets (65-61).
Santander battled Quintana for seven pitches in the first inning before hitting a full-count curveball deep to left field. It nearly hit the second deck.
Colton Cowser went the other way with a fly ball to the warning track in left field to lead off the second. Nimmo made the catch at the wall, but the ball popped out of his glove before he caught it again. Baltimore challenged the out call and it was overturned after a review.
It was tough to tell definitively from replay videos whether or not the ball hit the wall after it left his glove, but the officials determined that it had. Cowser was awarded a triple. With one out, McCann scored him on a sacrifice fly to put the Orioles up, 3-0.
After cutting the lead to 3-1 in the third, the Mets unraveled in the fourth. Again, Cowser and McCann were the culprits.
With one out, Cowser hit a line drive to right field over the head of Jesse Winker. The ball was hit right at Winker, but he was playing too shallow. It might have been an easy out for another right fielder, but Starling Marte got the day off and Winker hasn’t played right field regularly since 2018.
Alvarez then lost his footing trying to chase down a slow roller on the first baseline and fell over. Ramon Urias reached and Cowser scored.
With one out and one on, Quintana threw McCann a sinker that didn’t sink. McCann put it where Santander couldn’t — in the second deck of the left field seats. The Orioles went up 6-1.
With three RBI, McCann brought his career total to nine against the Mets in just seven games.
Quintana (6-9) made it through the fifth inning, but allowed another run. He finished with seven earned on eight hits while walking two and striking out three. The veteran southpaw has now given up 19 earned runs over his last four starts (8.27 ERA).
Mark Vientos extended his career-best hitting streak to eight games with an RBI double off right-hander Dean Kremer in the third. Kremer took the win (6-9) in six innings, allowing two hits, walking three and striking out seven.
The series is even at 1-1. The Mets will go for the win Wednesday before heading to San Diego to start a 10-game road trip against the Padres, Diamondbacks and White Sox.