The Mets started their three-game series against the Seattle Mariners with a loss on Friday night, falling 2-1 at Citi Field.
Here are five things to know
1. Max Scherzer looked locked in early, retiring the first nine batters he faced in order, needing just 36 pitches to get through three innings. He finally allowed his first baserunners in the fourth, as a J.P. Crawford single put runners on the corners. Later, with two outs and two strikes, Jesse Winker singled into center to drive in a run and tie the game 1-1 at that point.
2. The Mets offense got to work early against lefty Marco Gonzalez, with a Brandon Nimmo single and Starling Marte double to put runners at second and third with nobody out. Francisco Lindor came through with a sac fly to center, giving the Mets an early lead.
Gonzalez settled in, dueling with Scherzer while keeping the Mets hitters off balance with his mix of high fastballs and low changeups.
3. With the game still tied 1-1 into the seventh, Scherzer got into a bit of a jam, allowing an infield single and a walk to put two runners on with no outs. The Mariners then loaded the bases with one out after another walk, but Scherzer got a timely 5-4-3 double play to get out of the inning.
That would be all for Scherzer, who went seven innings allowing one run on three hits, striking out six and walking two on 98 pitches.
4. Gonzalez recorded the first two outs of the seventh, but he walked Tomas Nido and allowed a bloop double to Nimmo that Julio Rodriguez slid for but couldn't come up with in center field. With runners at second and third and two outs, former Met Paul Sewald came into the game and struck out Marte to end the inning.
5. Drew Smith came on to pitch the eighth, but he looked out of whack, walking the first two hitters he faced, missing up consistently. Ty France then singled down the first-base line, putting the Mariners up 2-1. For Smith, it was his first earned run allowed this season. To his credit, he settled down and got out of the inning without any further damage.
With the Mets still trailing 2-1 into the bottom of the ninth, J.D. Davis grounded out to end the game as the Mets went down in order.
The Mets also had a pair of hard-hit balls in this game that looked like they could have been home runs -- one from Jeff McNeil and one from Pete Alonso -- but with the baseballs simply not carrying at all this season, the result in both instances was a long flyout.