The good news is the Mets are improving their MLB draft lottery odds with every loss.
Expect plenty of that the rest of the year, particularly with the news that Juan Soto is expected to be out for at least a month with a strained left calf in addition to the looming sell-off ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
For the second straight night, Dodgers fans made Citi Field sound like Chavez Ravine as the owners of the best record in baseball pulled out a 4-3 victory in Queens on Saturday night.
Nolan McLean wasn’t helped by his defense — a Brett Baty throwing error and a Francisco Alvarez passed ball contributed to a three-run Dodgers third inning.
The punchless Mets predictably couldn’t touch Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who won for the 11th time this season.
The right-hander pitched around trouble in the first, third and fifth innings, and delivered six innings of one-run ball.
He held the Mets to 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
The loss marked the second time this season McLean has come up short against Yamamoto despite allowing just a total of three earned runs in 13 innings against the powerhouse Dodgers.
“That guy is unbelievable. It’s fun to watch him at the same time,” McLean said. “Wish he wouldn’t pitch so good against us.”
McLean completed six innings for his seventh straight start, allowing just two earned runs.
He struck out seven, walked two and allowed seven hits.
“I thought Nolan was solid. Short of spectacular, but solid,” interim manager Andy Green said.
A two-run pinch-hit double by Tyrone Taylor in the eighth got the Mets within a run, but A.J. Ewing struck out to end the inning, and the Mets went down in order in the ninth.
They have now lost four of their past five games, falling to a season-low 19 games under .500 at 43-62.
Only the Rockies have a worse record in the National League.
McLean allowed a leadoff homer in the third to Kyle Tucker, his second homer in as many days after entering the series with seven this season.
The Mets courted Tucker in the winter, but lost out to the Dodgers.
Then, the Mets let McLean down defensively.
With one on and one out, Baty’s throw hit the runner, setting the Dodgers up at first and third.
McLean didn’t help himself, failing to find the bag on a potential 3-6-1 double play that would’ve gotten him out of the inning.
Later in the frame, Alvarez boxed a breaking ball that popped in and out of his glove, enabling Andy Pages to score the third Dodgers run.
It is what Mets fans have come to expect from this team: sloppy play in the field and not enough of a response at the plate.
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There were chants of “Let’s go Dodgers” throughout this one-sided contest, starting at first pitch.
Friday night, Mets fans booed down most of those chants.
But perhaps taking a cue from the home team, they didn’t show anywhere close to the same resistance a night later.
