NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Mets head into 10 straight games against NL East rival Atlanta and Philadelphia after getting swept in a series for the first time this season.
New York was held to one hit in 20 plate appearances with runners on base Sunday, when the Tampa Bay Rays closed a three-game sweep with a 9-0 victory.
“You hate to get swept here at home, but you’ve got to move on,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It’s 162 (games), you’re going to go through stretches where this is going to happen. Obviously we’ve got to play better. We didn’t execute, we didn’t play clean baseball and they made us pay.”
New York hadn’t been swept in 36 series of two or more games dating to last Aug. 9-11 at Seattle, its third-longest streak and the longest since a team-record 58 from May 15, 1987, through May 11, 1988.
The Mets stranded 30 runners in the series and batted .148 (4 for 27) with runners in scoring position against the Rays, who are a big league best 18-6 since May 20.
Starters Clay Holmes, Tylor Megill and Griffin Canning combined to throw just 13 innings for the Mets. Paul Blackburn, who will replace the injured Kodai Senga in the rotation on Wednesday, allowed four runs while getting just one out in relief on Friday.
Megill and Griffin Canning gave up six runs apiece this weekend as the Mets division lead was cut to 2 1/2 games over Philadelphia.
Atlanta shuffled its rotation to line up Spencer Schwellenbach, defending Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale and Spencer Strider in the series against the Mets that starts Tuesday. Ronald Acuña Jr. is hitting .390 with seven homers and 14 RBIs in his first 21 games since returning from a torn ACL.
“When you look at that team, on paper, that’s a really good team,” Mendoza said. “Obviously they’ve had some struggles. The three guys that we’re facing, they’re elite pitchers. And then you look at their lineup, they’re healthy. We’ve got to get ready. The next 10 days, we’ve got to play well.”
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