NEW YORK — The pitching was the issue, Buck Showalter explained.
It wasn’t that the team was clamoring to option Dominic Smith – the move they were forced to make Tuesday to make room for reliever Aroldis Medina – but the bullpen had been taxed beyond what it could reasonably handle. A few hours before their game against the Nationals, they still didn’t know if Drew Smith and his dislocated pinkie were well enough to pitch and, with three-fifths of the rotation on the injured list, Trevor Williams was being called again to make a spot start.
All those concerns, and in the end, not a single one was able to trip up this red-hot Mets team.
Williams, who was a starter before getting moved to the bullpen last year, pitched a scoreless five innings in his longest outing of the season. Smith made his first appearance since hurting his finger Sunday and struck out four in 1 2/3 innings. And the Mets lineup? Well, it made sure that no one on the mound had to sweat all that much – putting together a 10-0 victory at Citi Field, their fifth in a row. They’ve won 13 of their 16 series.
Mark Canha went 4-for-5 with two runs and two RBIs, Jeff McNeil was 3-for-4 with two runs, and Starling Marte and Eduardo Escobar both chipped in two-run homers. The Mets had 17 hits off five pitchers.
Marte hit his homer – a 431-foot laser to the apple in center – one batter into the bottom of the first, staking the Mets to a 2-0 lead off Patrick Corbin. The Mets scored two more in the third, after Corbin loaded the bases on three straight one-out singles. With two outs, Corbin appeared to hit Luis Guillorme to score a run, but a manager’s challenge brought it back. No matter, though, not when you’re as hot as Guillorme is: The second baseman came right back and singled the other way to score two and make it 4-0. Guillorme came into the game hitting .426 with a .500 on-base percentage in his previous 25 games.
Canha’s bases-loaded double in the fifth scored two more. McNeil led off that inning singling against the shift (his third opposite-field single of the game), Escobar singled, too, and then, with one out, Tomas Nido hit a comebacker that Corbin couldn’t handle, ending the lefty’s night. With Erasmo Ramirez in, Canha dumped a double just inside the line for a 6-0 advantage. Francisco Lindor followed with a two-run single of his own, extending his RBI streak to nine games.
Williams (1-3), in his fourth start, allowed just three hits with two walks and a strikeout. He allowed only two runners to reach scoring position, and those were both courtesy of a pair of Pete Alonso errors.
It was, in all, yet another example of the Mets adapting despite unfavorable circumstances.
Even with his struggles at the plate, sending Dominic Smith to Triple-A wasn’t an easy choice, though a necessary one, Showalter said. He hoped the move was temporary (and it might very well be, since the Mets are carrying 14 pitchers and the major-league maximum gets reduced to 13 on June 20).
“It’ll give him a chance to see if he can get back to the things he’s capable of and, hopefully, he can do that and I have a lot of confidence he will and get him back up here helping us, especially when we get our pitching hopefully a little more straightened out,” Showalter said of Smith. “It’s difficult. I never become cold or insensitive to that. I’ve got a lot of respect for Dom. That’s another guy from our system that we think a lot of…It’s a tough conversation and not one anyone wants to have.”
Smith was slashing .186/.287/.256 with five extra-base hits in 86 at bats; he was hitless in his last three games.
With their backup first baseman gone, the Mets slotted Canha there in the ninth inning Tuesday, and they’ll use both him and J.D. Davi in that role, though Escobar and Patrick Mazeika can play there in a pinch.
News of the demotion must certainly smart for Smith, who told Newsday this month that he wanted to play every day and would like an opportunity to do so, even if it’s somewhere else. He was also the subject of trade rumors in the offseason.
“You always try to put yourself in their shoes knowing that, in a lot of cases, you can’t,” Showalter said of his conversation with Smith. “It’s one of those cases where someone says, I know what you’re feeling. No, you don’t. No, you don’t, so don’t act like you do. I’ve learned in situations like that, you’re better off listening than you are talking.”
