FLUSHING, NY — Sandy Alcántara was handling the Mets Sunday afternoon at Citi Field as the Marlins right-hander, a 2022 National League LatinoMVP Starting Pitcher of the Year and Cy Young Award winner, kept New York in check with his fastball and changeup.
The Mets could not handle Alcántara, (seven innings pitched, four hits, one run, a walk, six strikeouts) and with a Marlins 5-0 lead in the seventh, a 90.4-MPH changeup hit the leg of Mark Vientos.
Intentional pitch, probably not. Vientos, though, had a stare-down with Alcántara as he headed to first base.
Of course the benches of both teams emptied and headed to the field, so did the calgary bullpen. No punches thrown or ejections. Though, the Mets were already frustrated and it got worse as the Marlins took three-of-four in the series taking the series finale, 5-1.
Look at it this way, the Mets continued to be inconsistent in their quest to catch the Phillies for the NL East division lead, this after their prior series three-game sweep. It comes down to pitching and except for rookies Nolan McClean and Jonah Tong, it could be worse.
On Sunday, Kodai Senga continued to struggle (five earned runs across 4-⅔ innings) and with a 5.90 ERA since returning from the injured list on July 11.
Kodai Senga surrendered five earned runs across 4.2 innings on Sunday afternoon against the Marlins – Image Credit: Simon Lindenblatt/Latino Sports
David Peterson struggled against the Marlins (2.0 innings), Clay Holmes (5.0 innings) and the bullpen also. And surely, there will be decisions about putting Holmes in the bullpen as the Mets with two rookies will go back to starters on five days rest.
Regardless, and despite the Mets ending August leading baseball in offense, their pitching leads to questions. Manager Carlos Mendoza reiterates about making adjustments. Simple, the Mets pitching fails to deliver length, exception of Peterson at times, And of course, rookies this week that gave the rotation a major boost.
It’s not good enough now, indeed a short NL Wild Card series, where the Mets are projected to be positioned in October, and could face early elimination. Certainly not a good outlook for a team with the third highest team payroll.
The Mets have the third-highest payroll in MLB this season – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
So Alcántara and Vientos were the center of attention. As were the Mets’ failure to take care of business, the Phillies with a loss to the Braves Sunday night, holding a six-game advantage in first place. Though with a series upcoming with the Reds in Cincinnati, the Mets ended their homestand with a 4.0 game lead for the third and final NL Wild Card spot.
“It’s a combination of a lot of different things, but it starts on the mound,” said Mendoza about Senga, also an indirect reference as a whole about the rotation. “We got some quality starts against the Phillies, and we didn’t get many of them,” referring to the Marlins series.
After their 5-1 loss on Sunday afternoon, Carlos Mendoza and the Mets stand 73-64 on the 2025 MLB regular season – Image Credit: George Napolitano/Latino Sports
He said there are a few games ahead and the rotation needs to find that consistency. If anything, consistency all around is a prevailing issue because it’s rare when the Mets get that good combination of pitching and hitting. They did that against the Phillies, reverted to another direction against the pesky Marlins, a team that will play out the string until they are officially eliminated from postseason contention.
Vientos downplayed the pitch that nailed him. He said it was about emotions and doing what could be done to get on base, a struggle for the Mets facing Alcántara. But the whole time, Alcántara was composed also trying to keep this between him and Vientos.
“I don’t know what he was thinking,” Alcántara said, who tends to pitch with a quick pitch. “It was a changeup and he started staring at me. And I don’t like that. It just happened. You are fired up, the next day are are sitting at a bar drinking together, It just happened.”
With his 8th victory of the season Sunday afternoon against the Mets, Sandy Alcántara (2022 NL LatinoMVP Starting Pitcher of the Year), recorded seven innings of one run ball – Image Credit: Emma Sharon/Latino Sports
But for sure Alcántara and Vientos were not having a social drink after the game. The Mets and Marlins meet for the final three games of the season in Miami, perhaps their staredown and repercussions won’t have significance with possible postseason implications at stake.
Mendoza said, “Obviously Mark, he’s frustrated because he got hit. That was all there was to it. And in the heat of the moment, obviously Sandy didn’t like the reaction.”
Though the reaction at Citi Field, the Mets lost a series that should have been won. And now with the September stretch, they hope losing this series does not come back to haunt them later this month.
Rich Mancuso is a senior writer and columnist at LatinoSports.com – X: @Ring786, Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
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