Griffin Canning struggles, bats go quiet as Mets fall to White Sox, 9-4

The Mets couldn’t complete the series sweep, falling to the Chicago White Sox by a score of 9-4 on Wednesday afternoon at Citi Field.

Here are the key takeaways…

–Griffin Canning had an outing to forget. The right-hander struggled with his command, walking four hitters while throwing just 44 of his 80 pitches for strikes, and the White Sox capitalized when they had traffic on the bases, with Andrew Benintendi and Mike Tauchman each driving in a pair of runs in the first two innings to give Chicago a 4-0 lead.

Canning lasted just 3.0 innings, and while the defense behind him wasn’t always strong (Brett Baty and Jeff McNeil committed back-to-back errors in the second inning), the right-hander allowed three earned runs, and five runs overall, striking out three to go along with those four walks.

-Offensively, the Mets had a couple of base-runners on in the first and second, but failed to take advantage against Chicago righty Shane Smith. In the third, however, after back-to-back walks from Brandon Nimmo and Juan Soto, Mark Vientos came through with two outs, slamming a three-run home run to right to bring the Mets back within two at 5-3.

Vientos’ sixth homer of the season was the big blow against Smith, who lasted 3.2 innings, allowing three earned runs on two hits while walking five and striking out five.

–Brandon Waddell gave the Mets some needed outs after Canning’s shortened start, but he seemed to be running out of gas in the sixth, which was his third inning of work. Another Benintendi RBI hit and a Lenyn Sosa RBI knock put the Sox up 7-3. Waddell then came back out for a fourth inning, allowing another run before his afternoon came to a close.

Waddell ended up saving the bullpen by going 5.0 innings, throwing 94 pitches while allowing four earned runs on seven hits.

–Mike Vasil, who was at one point the Mets’ top pitching prospect, pitched the sixth inning for Chicago. An eighth-round pick in 2021, Vasil was a Rule 5 pick by the Phillies after the Mets didn’t protect him on the roster. He eventually ended up with Chicago this offseason, and pitching against his former organization on Wednesday he struck out five over 3.0 scoreless innings.

-Nimmo had two of the Mets’ five hits, and he reached base four times. Nimmo scored the Mets’ fourth run of the day in the ninth inning on a Pete Alonso RBI double.

Who was the game MVP?

Benintendi, who homered off Waddell in the eighth and had four RBI on the day.

Highlights

Upcoming Schedule

The Mets are off on Thursday before welcoming the Colorado Rockies to Citi Field for a three-game weekend set, starting on Friday night at 7:10 p.m. on SNY.

David Peterson starts for the Mets, while the Rockies have not yet announced a starter.

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