In a game that featured all the worst aspects of the 2026 team, the Mets dropped the opener of their three game set with the Rockies 4-3. Freddy Peralta was outpitched by Michael Lorenzen, who entered the game with an ERA of nearly 7.5. The offense had just about as poor of luck as you can imagine. It was more of the same.
We can keep the play-by-play portion of the recap brief. Two deep fly balls in the first died on the warning track, and a rally that could’ve been bigger in the second resulted in only a single run. After that, the Mets’ bats went silent while the Rockies scored in three consecutive innings; one run in the fifth, another to take the sixth, and two more for insurance in the seventh. The Mets got two back in the eighth but lined into three outs in the inning, then had some more poor batted luck in the ninth as they went down 1-2-3.
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Let’s get more granular on just how bad the batted ball luck was in this one. The Mets ground into three double plays and lined into another, with the latter coming in the eighth with the tying run on second. They hit two other line drive outs on the infield. There were multiple balls die on the warning track that might have left the yard on another night. The struck out only 3 times to the Rockies 15 and had more hits (though they did not work a walk). Yes, the offense needs to do more against literally Michael Lorenzen, but sometimes the baseball gods are just not on your side. Sure seems like that’s been the case more often than not for the 2026 Mets.
That said, chalking this entire loss up to poor sequencing and BABIP isn’t fair – the manager deserves blame too. Yes, the Mets could’ve used some more length out of their starter after Thursday night emptied their bullpen and yes, Freddy Peralta was nominally acquired to lead the rotation (though Nolan McLean is clearly the staff ace). At the same time, Peralta has never been the arm to give his team length. He was clearly gassed at the end of the fifth. And Carlos Mendoza, asleep at the wheel as he so often is, sent Peralta back out for the sixth and pulled him five batters too late after he’d given up another run.
It’s impossible to say for certain that the Mets win the game if that run doesn’t score, or that the reliever who came in would’ve been more effective. That’s irrelevant, however. This is one of the most basic managerial decisions imaginable, and Mendoza got it blatantly wrong. More than that, it’s a mistake he’s made time and again with Peralta and other starters. Clearly, no learning has occurred here.
In short, this was a typical loss for the 2026 Mets; solid pitching undermined by an inert offense, managerial incompetence, and poor luck en route to another irritating loss. The Mets are now 2-6 in 1-run games and 9-17 on the season. They’ll try to get back on the winning side of the ledger on Saturday with former Met Jose Quintana squaring off against Kodai Senga.
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What’s WPA?
Big Mets winner: Brett Baty, +19% WPA
Big Mets loser: Marcus Semien, -19% WPA
Mets pitchers: -12%% WPA
Mets hitters: -38% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Brett Baty singles on a ground ball to center field Brenton Doyle, +16.4% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Jake McCarthy doubles in the sixth to give the Rockies a 2-1 lead, -20.8% WPA
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