PHILADELPHIA — Joey Lucchesi was cruising along his first big league start of the season. The Mets held a one-run lead against the Philadelphia Phillies and Lucchesi’s signature “churve” looked every bit as nasty as it once did.
But then it all unraveled for the lefty in the fifth inning.
A four-run fifth did the Mets and Lucchesi in for the night, leading to a 10-5 loss to the Phillies on Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park. It was the third straight loss to their NL East foes for the Mets, who have now lost five of their last six games.
To be fair, there was plenty of blame to go around. The Mets made costly defensive mistakes with two errors and even more mental mistakes. The bullpen was a sieve, with right-hander Grant Hartwig giving up two runs (one earned) in relief of Lucchesi and right-hander Adrian Houser tagged for three (one earned).
“We’ve got work to do,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “That’s the message to the players.”
Mendoza put the onus on the coaching staff to help the team get past this dismal stretch of play. The manager didn’t make excuses or deflect criticism, only promising that the team would put in the work to play better baseball.
“We’re going through a rough patch right now,” Mendoza said. “We didn’t play a good game today or a clean game. It’s going to happen at times. But understanding that us as a coaching staff, our job is to continue to work with these guys and help them get through it.
“And we will.”
Lucchesi (0-1) was called up from Triple-A Syracuse on Wednesday to make a start in place of Houser. Forced to empty their bullpen in Tuesday’s loss to the Phillies at Citi Field, Houser warmed up as the last pitcher standing and was unable to make his Wednesday start. Lucchesi was set to start against Triple-A Iowa, instead he found himself driving from Syracuse to Philadelphia with third baseman Mark Vientos on Tuesday night.
It was a tough challenge, but one many other pitchers have managed to overcome. Lucchesi took full responsibility for the damage, which amounted to five earned runs on five hits, four walks and two strikeouts over 4 1/3 innings.
“No one likes excuses so I’m not going to make any,” Lucchesi said. “I felt really good today, I felt on and pretty sharp, except for that last inning. But yeah, of course it’s hard and tough to get here in one night or whatever. But I’m a warrior. So I felt good, man. I don’t know.”
Lucchesi gave up a home run to Bryce Harper in the first before settling in through the next few innings. But in the fifth, he lost the strike zone completely and walked the first two hitters. No. 9 hitter Johan Rojas dropped a bunt to the left of the mound and instead of making a play at first base, Lucchesi turned and threw to third base where Edmundo Sosa was already safe.
It was reminiscent of a play Lucchesi tried to make last season in Miami. Lucchesi turned to throw to third and collided with Brett Baty in the process. Failing to realize the third baseman was right in front of him, he threw to an empty base.
“The bunt happened and then bases were loaded,” Lucchesi said. “I tried to miss more on the inner third [part of the plate], and then they were just putting good bat-to-ball on it and things kind of just got away from me.”
The rest of his inning went as follows: A bases-loaded walk to Kyle Schwarber, an RBI single to J.T. Realmuto and a two-run double to Harper. The Mets got Realmuto at the plate for the first out, ending Lucchesi’s night.
“I think they made some adjustments because early in the game it felt like they were swinging at balls just outside of the strike zone,” Mendoza said. “In that inning, they came in with a plan and they were just forcing him [to throw the ball] in the zone and he lost it there.”
The Mets (19-23) scored two runs off left-handed starter Ranger Suarez, who went five innings in the win (8-0). Right-hander Spencer Turnbull pitched three innings for Philadelphia (31-13), giving up three in the eighth. J.D. Martinez hit his second homer of the season to lead off and Vientos (2-for-4 with an RBI double) followed with a single up the center.
With two outs, Jeff McNeil hit a deep fly to right-center field and Johan Rojas dove for it, with the ball falling right next to him for an RBI double. Tomas Nido sent him home on a single.
But the offensive output was too little, too late.
“We’re just not clicking right now,” Mendoza said. “The free basis or extra bases, when you’re playing good teams, you know, they’re going to make you pay for them. This is something that we will continue to address and we’ve got to get better.”
