NEW YORK — Stuck with a team collectively slumping and without its best hitter, Luis Rojas decided to get funky.
The Mets’ lineup Tuesday featured Francisco Lindor batting leadoff for the first time this season. Dominic Smith moved up to second, Pete Alonso to third, the previously struggling Michael Conforto to fourth. Starting pitcher David Peterson slotted into the No. 8 spot, ahead of centerfielder Kevin Pillar. Precipitating that rejiggering was the absence of Brandon Nimmo, who sat out with a right hip impingement.
Rojas didn’t have anything to lose — except the game, it turns out. The Mets dropped the series opener to the Red Sox, 2-1, after another poor hitting performance.
Lindor’s at-bat in the eighth brought a new low point. After he grounded out to the pitcher, the Citi Field crowd of 7,917 booed. None of the Mets’ final 10 batters reached base.
Red Sox righthander Garrett Richards cruised for seven innings, striking out 10 (zero walks) and scattering seven hits. The Mets’ only run came on Jeff McNeil’s second homer of the year, a first-pitch blast into the upper deck in rightfield. Richards never needed even 20 pitches in a given inning.
That dropped Richards’ ERA from 6.48 to 4.94.
And so continued an early-season theme for the Mets (9-9), who have had solid pitching and minimal hitting. That they limited the Red Sox (15-9) — who are in first place in the AL East and boasted the best offense in the American League to begin the night — to two runs was a consolation prize at best.
Peterson (5.59 ERA) recorded his second quality start in four outings this month, holding Boston to two runs and four hits in six innings. He struck out three and walked two.
The Red Sox struck in the third on Bobby Dalbec’s leadoff home run, which immediately erased what had been an early Mets lead.
Peterson began to waver in the sixth, allowing the Red Sox to take a lead on back-to-back hits from Enrique Hernandez (double into the rightfield corner) and Rafael Devers (bloop single to leftfield). But after a visit from pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, he settled down, getting J.D. Martinez to ground into a double play to evade further trouble.
A highlight for the Mets: Alonso turning Dalbec’s potential single into an out in the fifth inning.
Dalbec slashed a grounder toward first base, and Alonso took a couple of steps to his left, fielding the ball mid-hop. After bouncing to his feet, Alonso found himself in an awkward in between — throw to Peterson, sort of late covering the bag, or take it himself? — and decisively sprinted to the base, diving hands-first to beat Dalbec and record the out.
For a player who faced significant questions about his defense upon his arrival in the majors in 2019 — but casually mentions his Gold Glove aspirations at least once a year — Alonso has made those sorts of diving stops something of a regular occurrence this month.
Although the sample size of data is small this early in the season, Alonso ranks first among Mets regulars with 2 Defensive Runs Saved, manager Luis Rojas’ favorite statistic to gauge effectiveness on defense. That is better than Lindor, Pillar, Nimmo and McNeil, who each have 1 DRS.
The Mets ended up with another diving-for-the-base defensive highlight in the seventh, after Jeurys Familia replaced Peterson. Hunter Renfroe was on second with one out, Marwin Gonzalez at the plate. Lindor, who is open about his dislike of defensive shifts, used it to his benefit this time, catching Gonzalez’s 105-mph line drive on the opposite side of the second-base bag. Then the shortstop dove to the base to double off Renfroe for the unassisted double play.
