Mets silenced by Brewers in one-hit Opening Day flop
If a Mets player threw a punch and landed it during an eighth-inning shouting match with the Brewers on Friday it would have equaled the team’s hit total for the day.
Simply, the Mets got overmatched by Freddy Peralta and the Brewers bullpen, falling silent in a 3-1 Opening Day loss before a Citi Field sellout crowd of 42,137.
Starling Marte’s second-inning homer provided the Mets with hope for the afternoon.
But it turned out to be the Mets’ only hit.
The Mets had previously never finished with fewer than two hits in a season opener.
“The good thing is we have got 161 left,” Pete Alonso said, referring to the remaining schedule.
Benches emptied in the eighth after Rhys Hoskins spiked Jeff McNeil on a late slide into second base.
The teams barked at each other on the field — and Hoskins gestured crying eyes toward McNeil — but order was restored without punches thrown.
Bad blood between the Mets and Hoskins dates to 2019 when Hoskins, then with the Phillies, took 33 seconds to circle the bases on his home run trot after Jacob Rhame had thrown behind him earlier.
Hoskins’ history of what McNeil termed “questionable” slides had the second baseman on alert.
“I knew there was a possibility that might happen, and it did,” McNeil said. “You want to break up the double play, but there was no double-play chance.”
Umpires reviewed the call and determined Hoskins was not in violation of the sliding rule that if broken would have awarded the Mets a double play.
“It’s a late slide,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Obviously we didn’t like it. Jeff didn’t like it. But it’s legal. [Hoskins] held on to the base and it’s considered legal.”
Francisco Lindor said the optics of the play were bad given that such hard slides have largely vanished from the game with the implementation of new rules in recent years.
“We haven’t played a game like that in a while … so when a play like that does happen it doesn’t look good,” Lindor said.
In his second career Opening Day start — he had one with the White Sox in 2017 — Jose Quintana allowed two earned runs on six hits and two walks over 4 ²/₃ innings.
The left-hander was removed at 85 pitches, after allowing a third runner to reach base in the fifth inning.
Quintana labored through the first inning on this windy day, allowing a walk and single before getting Hoskins to hit into an inning-ending double play.
The Mets may have caught a break when rookie Jackson Chourio was held at third base on Christian Yelich’s single to left with one out.
“I thought [Quintana] was OK,” Mendoza said. “I didn’t think he had the best feeling early on, especially that first inning with the wind and he mentioned something about that, but I thought he kept us in the game.”
Marte gave the Mets a memorable first hit of the season with a shot that cleared the left-field fence against Peralta in the second inning.
It marked the third straight season in which Marte homered in the Mets’ first home game.
Marte’s shot into the wind registered 109.2 mph off the bat.
Yelich’s homer leading off the fourth tied it 1-1.
Over the last two seasons Quintana was MLB’s best among starting pitchers at preventing home runs, averaging only 0.48 per appearance.
Quintana walked No. 9 hitter Andruw Monasterio in the fifth and paid for it: Following Chourio’s single, William Contreras hit a fly to right on which Marte struggled with the sun and wind.
Marte recorded the out, but his throw home was off line and Monasterio scored, putting the Mets in a 2-1 hole.
Jake Bauers stroked a pinch-hit double against Jorge Lopez leading off the seventh and following Bruce Turang’s bunt single scored on Chourio’s RBI groundout, giving the Brewers a 3-1 lead.
Peralta retired the final 13 batters he faced, allowing only two base runners over six innings.
Other than Marte’s homer, DJ Stewart walked in the second inning before he was picked off first base by the catcher Contreras.
Lindor walked leading off the seventh against Trevor Megill and advanced to second on a wild pitch with two outs, but the Mets couldn’t capitalize — Brewers pitchers retired the final nine batters they faced.
“We had good pitches to hit,” Lindor said. “And just missed it.”
