HOUSTON — Starling Marte watched a sinking changeup stay just high enough to clip the bottom of the strike zone. The Mets’ No. 2 hitter likely thought the next pitch would do the same, and so Marte unleashed a hefty cut at a curveball that bounced long before it reached home plate. He didn’t get any closer on the third pitch he saw, a cutter in the dirt that he couldn’t hit with a golf club.
Marte shook his head as he trudged back to the dugout in the fourth inning. Repeatedly at the plate and ultimately in the game, the Mets came up empty.
Framber Valdez mystified the Mets’ bats with a four-hit, eight-inning masterpiece in a 4-2 loss to the Astros at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday, when Buck Showalter’s offense was overmatched.
Yet again, the Mets followed a potentially momentous victory — in which Max Scherzer dazzled Monday — with a deflating defeat.
“[Monday] night was a good night. Tonight was not,” said Jeff McNeil, who went 0-for-3 against Valdez. “It’s tough. We’re trying to get on a roll. We need to get hot, we all know it.
Justin Verlander had one bad inning for the Mets in his return to Houston on Tuesday. AP“[We] want to start winning a lot of ballgames and get right back into this thing.”
The Mets (34-39) dropped their 12th game in their past 16 because Justin Verlander had one bad inning early, which proved worse than Valdez’s one bad inning late. The Mets will turn to Tylor Megill for Wednesday’s rubber game, trying to snap a skid of five straight without a series victory.
The Mets’ attack, which exploded for 11 runs and 14 hits a night prior, could barely make contact with anything Valdez offered. Mark Canha’s single down the first-base line with one out in the sixth qualified as significant progress: Valdez, who finished fifth in AL Cy Young voting last year and has been better this year, had retired the first 16 hitters he saw. The faint scent of a perfect game was in the air.
It was not perfect, but for seven innings it was awfully close. Three pitches after Canha’s single, Eduardo Escobar grounded into an inning-ending double play. Valdez could throw a high-90s sinker, a low-90s changeup and low-80s cutters and curveballs, all for strikes and all deceiving whoever was at the plate.
Alex Bregmen celebrates his two-run homer against the Mets on Tuesday. Getty Images“My first at-bat I didn’t see a lot of spin. [The at-bat] didn’t look very good,” McNeil said of a four-pitch strikeout, before he essentially started playing defense at the plate. “My second and third at-bat, I just took the two-strike approach the whole time. Just trying to see the ball deep.”
The Mets’ offense finally broke through against a tiring Valdez in the eighth, when they used three of the night’s four hits to score a pair of runs. Canha’s sacrifice fly and Escobar’s single brought in Tommy Pham and Francisco Alvarez, respectively.
But Valdez won a battle with Brandon Nimmo, who popped up to end the threat.
The Mets had another chance in the ninth, when Astros closer Ryan Pressly walked Pete Alonso with two outs. But Pham, who represented the tying run, struck out.
Astros starter Framber Valdez kept the Mets at bay for eight strong innings on Tuesday night. Getty Images“It was a well-pitched game, really well-pitched on both sides,” Showalter said after Verlander lost in his return to Houston, where he had starred for parts of five seasons.
Verlander was outdueled by his former rotation-mate, but the Mets’ co-ace, though, did not pitch especially poorly. A night after an encouraging turn from Scherzer, Verlander was charged with four runs on eight hits in seven innings.
Verlander cruised until the third, when a Corey Julks double, a Martin Maldonado single and a Jose Altuve sacrifice fly created one run before Alex Bregman created two.
The star third baseman and a close friend of Verlander’s smoked a 3-0 fastball that got too much of the plate for a two-run home run to left.
Eduardo Escobar delivers an RBI single for the Mets against the Astros on Tuesday night. Getty Images“Bit frustrated. 3-0 homer,” Verlander said. “I know Breggy does his homework and sold out for a heater there. That’s on me. Should’ve known better.”
In Verlander’s final inning, Julks reached on an infield single, took second base on a ground out and scored on a single from Altuve for a final insurance run.
“The last one bugs me. Trying to salvage a decent outing, go seven [innings] and three [runs], you give your team a good chance,” Verlander said.
There is still plenty of season left, but the Mets’ chances grow longer with each setback.
