The Mets’ season-long strength suddenly does not seem as strong.
For two and a half months, through fluctuating results from a hot-and-cold offense, the Mets have been able to rely upon a group of starters that has appeared never-ending.
It has not just been that the rotation has been solid, but deep, absorbing Sean Manaea- and Frankie Montas-sized blows and bouncing right back up off the mat.
But over a span of three days, the Mets 1) learned Kodai Senga is gone for likely at least a month with a hamstring strain suffered Thursday; 2) have decided a potential fill-in, Montas, is not quite guaranteed a rotation spot in large part because of his ineffectiveness through five rehab starts, highlighted by a Friday implosion and 3) have reason to worry about Tylor Megill.
Because on Saturday, the struggles of the No. 5 starter continued in an 8-4 loss to the Rays in front of 41,662 rain-soaked fans at Citi Field, where the Mets dropped a series — snapping a streak of six series they either won or tied — before Sunday’s finale.
The Mets (45-26) do not need brilliance from Megill, but they need more than he provided while pitching 3 ²/₃ innings and allowing six runs (three earned), lowlighted by a fourth inning that “spiraled” on Megill, Carlos Mendoza said.
“Ball out of the hand where he’s bouncing,” the manager said of pitches that were not close, “and then when he came in the zone, they were all over him.
“He lost it there pretty much.”
In that inning, the Rays sent 11 batters to the plate — 10 against Megill — and a Mets lead evaporated instantly.
The first batter, Junior Caminero, destroyed a 2-1 sinker 409 feet to left, deep into the first deck to tie the game.
After two more Rays reached — a plunking and a single to put runners on the corners — the frame turned on a rare safety squeeze from Taylor Walls, who dragged a bunt toward first base.
In a game whose start was delayed 51 minutes by rain, Megill conceded the run and tried to get the out at first base, but he picked the ball up from wet grass, cocked it behind him and dropped it.
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“When I went to go grab it, felt like it slipped right through my fingers,” said Megill, who then struck out Josh Lowe — which, because of his own error, was crucially only the second out of the inning.
Given life, the Rays essentially put down the Mets with a pair of RBI singles, a seven-pitch walk to Jonathan Aranda to reload the bases, and a wild pitch that let another run score.
“Trying to throw a sinker backdoor and just pulled it,” Megill said of the wild pitch that created a 6-2 hole.
After Megill lost Caminero, the inning’s leadoff hitter, to a seven-pitch walk, Mendoza took the ball from him, and boos followed a head-down Megill every step to the dugout.
Megill did not want to cite his most recent start at Coors Field — where the altitude affected Friday’s starter, Clay Holmes, and prompted a shorter start — for the collapse after three strong innings, but the troubling trend lines extend further than last week.
Six starts into his season, Megill looked like a breakout candidate and owned a 1.74 ERA. In eight starts since the beginning of May, he has pitched to a 5.79 ERA that has elevated his season mark to 3.95.
“The outings that [Megill has] been good, he’s attacking, especially with the fastball — not trying to be perfect all the time,” said Mendoza, whose offense consisted of home runs from Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio and a pair of RBI singles from Brandon Nimmo. “And then the days that it doesn’t go his way, he’s nibbling or a night like tonight where the secondaries weren’t there.”
It is possible Montas replaces Megill eventually, but the Mets are not sure what to do with the offseason addition who has been knocked around during a rehab assignment and will require a sixth minor league start.
The loss of Senga has meant Paul Blackburn, who was crushed in relief Friday, is at least temporarily back in the rotation.
For a group that has rolled really from Day 1, a speed bump has appeared.
“Not really,” Mendoza said when asked if he felt his rotation depth is being tested. “[These kind of starts are] going to happen.”