NEW YORK — The Mets had no actual manager on Wednesday evening, though that wasn’t nearly as big a problem as having no offense for six innings. Or working around ineffective pitching, for that matter.
On a night when they were without Buck Showalter and bench coach Glenn Sherlock – the former because he was undergoing a medical procedure and the latter because he was still on the COVID-19 injured list, the Mets looked to a committee of coaches and analysts to help make the call. But no amount of strategy was going to wake up their bats, which folded against the Giants' formidable pitching, as they lost, 5-2, at Citi Field.
But though it was hardly pretty, it wasn’t exactly disastrous, either. The Mets remain one of the hottest teams in baseball after winning their previous three. And given his track record and his final two innings, Chris Bassitt’s brutal start looked to be an anomaly: He allowed five runs, all earned, and eight hits with a walk and six strikeouts over six, but retired the final seven batters to face him, four on strikeouts. It was the first loss this year for a member of the Mets rotation, which came into the day 7-0 with an MLB-best 1.56 ERA.
