Luzardo, Soler, Chisholm hand Mets their first loss of the season

Apr 1, 2023 - 2:03 AM

The Mets offense left plenty to be desired in their first loss of the 2023 campaign, falling to the divisional rival Miami Marlins by a score of 2-1.

Jesús Luzardo, for the first five innings of his first start of the year, was as exquisite as the throwback uniform he donned tonight, surrendering just a single hit over the first five frames, an opposite field single to Starling Marte. Luzardo hit a bit of a wall in the sixth, after retiring the first two batters of the frame with relative ease.

A Nimmo walk and a second Marte single got a two-out rally going, and a Francisco Lindor walk loaded the bases JT Chargois came in to relieve Luzardo and got Pete Alonso to line out sharply to Jazz Chisholm to end the threat.

David Peterson had the most David Peterson start one could imagine. He only surrendered one run — a Jorge Soler home run — in five innings, but he constantly got into and weaseled his way out of trouble. He surrendered eight hits, walked one, struck out five, and threw 51 of his 84 pitches for strikes and was aided by some excellent Mets defense, particularly from Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil. While it was rarely pretty, it gave the Mets a chance to win, and with their pitching depth suddenly tested, they’ll surely sign up for that.

The later innings saw the Mets offense open up more, namely because Luzardo was no longer tormenting them as he did for five and two thirds innings. Their second rally came in the eighth inning, when a pinch hitting Daniel Vogelbach hit a one-out hustle double on a ball that bounced off of Chisholm’s glove. A Brandon Nimmo fly out got Starling Marte up, who smoked a ball to right and seemingly tied the game — though a diving Jorge Soler put an end to the rally and the inning.

John Curtiss made his Mets debut and will likely not want to remember it, as Chisholm made up for his poor start to the season offensively and defensively with an absolute laser of a home run to give Miami a very important insurance run in the bottom of the eighth.

A.J. Puk, making his Marlins debut, came in for his first save opportunity and looked mostly like a high-leverage reliever. He absolutely blew Lindor away on three pitches, gave up a home run to Alonso, blew away Mark Canha on three pitches, and got McNeil to ground out on a pitch out of the zone to put and end to the Mets’ dreams of 162-0.

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What’s WPA?

Big winner: David Peterson, 10.8% WPA
Big loser: Jeff McNeil, -18.1% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +13.3% WPA
Total batter WPA: -63.3% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Daniel Vogelbach’s eighth inning double, 10.2% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Jorge Soler’s second inning home run, -11.2% WPA