New Year, Same Ole Mets in Deflating Opening Loss

 PHILLIES 5 - METS 2 

If Monday night's 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies is going to be a microcosm of things to come for the 2021 Mets, it's going to be a long season. 

Because on Monday, Mets fans were treated to a familiar script. 

- Jacob deGrom pitches brilliantly. 

- The Mets fail to get him much run support, as he clings to a 2-0 lead, before exiting the ball game after just 77 piches.   

- 77 pitches? Really Luis Rojas. 

- The bullpen implodes. 

- The Mets rally late, but fall short. 

Yep, same story as we've become accustomed to from the Metropolitans. 

deGrom was indeed brilliant. In fact he was virtually unhittable. At one point he was hitting 100 mph on his heater in the sixth inning, and had Bryce Harper and the rest of the Phillies lineup completely flabbergasted. 

deGrom even helped his own cause with a pair of singles, including an RBI single in the fifth that gave the Mets a 2-0 lead. James McCann was the only other Met to produce a run, an RBI single in the fourth in his Mets debut. 

Other than that, the Mets had no answer offensively. They left 10 men on base, and were 4-for-11 with RISP.  

The $341 million man, Francisco Lindor? He made some snazzy plays defensively, but was quiet with the bat until his single through hole at second in the top of the ninth during a potential Mets rally. 

The real culprit of course was the bullpen. Former Minnesota Twins reliever Trevor May had nothing on his fastball which was completely flat, and the Phillies knew it. After giving up a 1-out single to Brad Miller, May lost Andrew McCutchen to a walk after an eight pitch battle. Then Rhys Hoskins slapped a base hit to right after a six pitch duel. 

Finally Rojas went back to the pen to bring in lefty Aaron Loup, who just didn't have it. Loup hit Harper in the rear end with the bases loaded to drive in a run to make it 2-1, and J.T. Realmuto slapped a single through the hole at third to tie it. 

Finally the Mets got sloppy defensively when Luis Guillorme threw away a grounder by Alec Brohm that drove in two run more Phillies runs to make it 4-2. 

It was  the ultimate disaster, and the Mets seemed powerless to stop the mudslide. 

The Mets tried to rally in the ninth.  Kevin Pillar and Lindor singled, before Michael Conforto reached on a RBI base hit that Harper couldn't handle in right. Finally, Pete Alonzo skied one to deep right that he barely missed hitting out of the park. Instead of changing the narrative, Alonzo's fly ball was emblematic of the night. So close, yet so far. 

The Mets (0-1) send Marcus Stroman to the hill tomorrow against the 4-0 Phillies.