All night long, the Mets had chances to score against Arizona and failed to deliver in a 4-3 loss, just their second of the season at Citi Field.
They scored twice in the bottom of the ninth, but the final rally fell short, as Francisco Alvarez grounded out with the bases loaded to end the game.
Asked to sum up the defeat, Carlos Mendoza said, “Not getting the big hit and they got the big hit, especially with two outs. We created some chances and couldn’t come through.”
They ended up 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left 13 runners on base — and still had a chance to come back in the final inning.
Trailing by three runs after the Diamondbacks added two more runs to their lead in the top of the ninth, Tyrone Taylor led off the bottom of the inning against Justin Martinez with his first homer of the season.
Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto walked to bring up Pete Alonso, who was drilled on a 2-2 pitch by side-armer Ryan Thompson to load the bases for Mark Vientos, who’d homered in the third.
This time, Vientos struck out.
Jesse Winker, who pinch hit for Starling Marte in the eighth, seemingly fouled a ball off his foot, but the ball went to first and it was ruled a run-scoring groundout.
With runners on second and third, Jeff McNeil got the count to 3-1 before he was walked intentionally.
And Alvarez grounded out to end it.
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“We always feel like we’re gonna come back,” Vientos said. “We felt like we were rolling in the ninth, but even before the inning started, we thought we were gonna do it.”
The loss also came thanks to another rough outing by Ryne Stanek, who gave up the lead in the seventh.
Stanek replaced lefty Brandon Waddell — who was terrific for 4 ¹/₃ shutout innings — and gave up two runs for a third straight outing.
Both Stanek and Mendoza said the right-hander was hurt by some bad luck, as Stanek wasn’t hit hard.
“It doesn’t feel good that the last three times have not gone well results-wise,” Stanek said. “But I can’t look at one pitch I didn’t execute over the last three games. … They couldn’t have thrown the ball in a better spot. It sucks.”
Arizona got to Stanek for three consecutive two-out hits, including a two-run, go-ahead single by pinch hitter Geraldo Perdomo to put Arizona up 2-1.
The defeat wasted strong efforts by Huascar Brazobán — who tossed two scoreless innings as the opener — as well as Waddell, who took over to start the third in his first MLB appearance since 2021 after spending most of the past three years pitching professionally in Asia.
The Mets had a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff single by Taylor, who swiped second with Lindor at the plate.
Lindor popped out and Soto flied out on a 3-0 pitch before Alonso walked and Vientos struck out.
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Vientos had given the Mets the lead with a solo homer off Corbin Burnes with two outs in the bottom of the third.
It was the third baseman’s fourth home run of the season — all in his past 11 games.
Up with two on and one out in the fifth, Vientos wasn’t able to come through again, as he grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Burnes, off to a rocky start since signing a six-year, $210 million contract with the Diamondbacks in the offseason, pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the first and allowed just one run in six innings, despite five walks.
