SEATTLE — Jose Quintana pitched better than his line indicated Friday night against the Seattle Mariners. But with the way right-hander Bryce Miller was pitching for the home team, the margin for error was slim.
It took just a throwing error and two ground balls that found holes for the Mets to fall apart. They lost 6-0 to the Mariners in the series opener at T-Mobile Park, dropping to 3-4 on the road trip.
“That’s baseball,” shortstop Francisco Lindor said. “Miller did a good job today and executed his pitches. We had some hits and we had guys in scoring position, but they executed every time we had guys on base.”
The Mets (61-55) went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position. Quintana (6-8) had five earned runs on four hits, two walks and eight strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings.
Through the seventh inning, he had held the Mariners (61-56) to two runs, both coming off No. 8 hitter Ryan Bliss in the second inning. Bliss hit the first pitch he saw from the left-hander, a looping curveball to the outside of the plate, and drove it over the left-center field fence for just his second home run of the season.
“Early in the game, they got him on a breaking ball that allowed him to go over the top,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “But after that, he was really good.”
Quintana was excellent after the home run, retiring the next 14 straight and earning a chance to pitch until the seventh inning.
The Mets couldn’t do much against Miller (9-7), who shut them out for six innings, allowing three hits and a walk while striking out six in the win. Seattle has one of the best pitching staffs in baseball and they lived up to the hype. Right-hander Colin Snider scored two runs in the seventh with no outs, but then forced a double play by Mark Vientos and got Francisco Alvarez to fly out to right field, protecting a 2-0 lead.
Quintana was trying to keep the game within reach.
“I’ve always had confidence that hitters will come back in the game,” Quintana said. “If you keep the game close, you have a very good chance of coming back. They hit well in one inning, they scored four runs. At some point, that’s going to happen for us, too.”
With two batters on base and two out in the bottom of the seventh inning, Quintana faced No. 9 hitter Leo Rivas, who was 0 for 2 against him up to that point. But Quintana had already passed the 90-pitch mark and Rivas made him work, battling him for six pitches before he hit a full-count changeup off a diving Jeff McNeil in right field. Both runners scored and the Mets fell further behind as the Mariners took a 4-0 lead.
None of Quintana’s seventh-inning singles were particularly hard, but they were hard enough to do some damage. The leadoff walk to Mitch Garver hurt him the most.
“If you have weak contact, that’s what you want,” Quintana said. “I think the problem was the first batter’s walk. I can control that. That was a problem. After that, I had a ground ball, but it was too soft and we couldn’t get the out.”
Mendoza stood by his decision to let Quintana face Rivas.
“That was his game,” Mendoza said. “That was his game out there, especially with the way he was perceived. That was his last batter. A 3-2 changeup at the plate and he got a ground ball and it went through.”
The mustachioed Adam Ottavino took over for Quintana and struggled immediately, snapping a six-inning scoreless streak. The veteran right-hander faced four batters before finally getting the third out, allowing a run and allowing an inherited runner to score. Ottavino, who has long struggled to control the ground game, was visibly upset after Rivas and Victor Robles double-stealed. Rivas stole two bags against Ottavino and Robles stole one.
The Mets threatened in the eighth inning by putting two batters on base with two outs against right-hander Austin Voth, but Pete Alonso grounded out. In the ninth inning, J.D. Martinez led off with a double against right-hander Trent Thornton, but the Mets then retired in order with Francisco Alvarez grounding out to end the game.
The Mets are at the end of a long, grueling road trip that has already taken them through three cities and three time zones. They’re in the final stretch, but that’s not going to get any better against a tough pitching staff in a stadium that doesn’t lend itself to offensive production this weekend.
“At the end of the day, we’re major league players, so we have to adjust,” Lindor said. “I made my adjustments a little late, but we just have to find ways to score runs. It’s hard to win games when you’re not scoring.”
