San Francisco @ New York preview
Citi Field
Last Meeting ( Aug 25, 2021 ) San Francisco 3, NY Mets 2
The New York Mets won't have to worry about seeing the San Francisco Giants again after Thursday night. However, they have six consecutive games after that in which they will be subjected to fans vocalizing their displeasure at Citi Field.
The Mets will look to avoid being swept by the Giants on Thursday night, when they will host the National League West leaders in the finale of a three-game series.
Right-hander Carlos Carrasco (0-2, 8.82 ERA) is slated to start for the Mets against Giants left-hander Alex Wood (10-4, 4.11 ERA).
The Mets' miserable August continued Wednesday, when they hit into five double plays and left the bases loaded in the ninth inning of a 3-2 loss.
With the loss, the Mets fell to 6-17 this month and dropped seven games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East. New York opened August with a four-game lead atop the division.
A crowd of 24,384 grew frustrated in the seventh inning Wednesday night after Luis Rojas pulled starter Taijuan Walker -- who carried a 2-1 lead and a one-hitter into the sixth -- when the first two batters reached via an error and bloop single.
Aaron Loup, who entered the game with a 1.09 ERA, gave up a first-pitch, two-run double to Brandon Crawford. While Walker threw a water bottle in the dugout, boos rained down on the Mets and a chant of "Fire Rojas" could be heard at Citi Field, where the Mets will host the Washington Nationals and Miami Marlins once the Giants depart.
"This is baseball," Rojas said. "We have a very passionate fan base, and they're going to do those things. That's just OK. It's part of the game. It's part of baseball here in New York."
Sloppiness has not generally been a problem this season for the Giants, who have the best record in baseball at 82-44 and are 2 1/2 games ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West. San Francisco entered Wednesday tied for second in the NL in fielding percentage (.987) as well as second in defensive efficiency (.718), which is defined as the percentage of balls a team converts into outs.
However, the Giants committed several atypical mistakes Wednesday. Kris Bryant, who homered to break up Walker's budding perfect game bid in the fourth, threw the ball away on Pete Alonso's bases-loaded grounder to allow the Mets to score their first run in the fifth.
In the ninth, Brandon Belt wasn't charged with an error after dropping a pop-up in foul ground by Jonathan Villar, who eventually singled. Brandon Drury followed with a routine fly to center, but left fielder Alex Dickerson crashed into Austin Slater, who dropped the ball. Dickerson was charged with the error. Closer Jake McGee wriggled out of the jam by retiring Alonso on a soft liner.
"It was not our cleanest game," Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. "In order to win the biggest games going forward for the rest of the season, we're going to have to play clean, fundamentally sound, crisp, efficient baseball."
Carrasco and Wood each lost their most recent starts last Friday. Carrasco allowed three runs over five innings as the Mets were edged by the Dodgers, 3-2, while Wood surrendered two runs over five innings as the Giants fell to the Oakland Athletics, 4-1.
Carrasco is 0-2 with a 3.15 ERA in three career starts against the Giants. Wood is 1-3 with a 3.65 ERA in 10 starts against the Mets.
--Field Level Media