Mets' offense goes cold in 3-2 loss to Guardians

Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News on Aug 5, 2025

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — A near-capacity crowd filed into Citi Field on Tuesday night, hoping to see Pete Alonso make home run history.

But there wasn’t much offense of any kind to go around as the Mets fell, 3-2, to the Cleveland Guardians for their seventh loss in eight games.

The Mets went scoreless after the second inning and didn’t manage a hit after the fourth, with Cleveland retiring the Mets’ final 14 batters to clinch a series victory.

Tyler Rogers — one of the marquee relievers acquired by the Mets last week before the trade deadline — surrendered three hits in the seventh inning, including a two-out, go-ahead RBI single to Steven Kwan that proved to be the game winner.

All of that put a damper on a night in which a crowd of 39,895 cheered loudly every time Alonso came to the plate, hoping to see the fan-favorite first baseman tie the Mets’ all-time home run record.

Alonso went 1 for 3 with a sacrifice fly, but he remains at 251 career homers, one shy of Darryl Strawberry’s franchise best.

Alonso’s first-inning sac fly started the scoring for the Mets, and they led 2-0 after Tyrone Taylor added a second-inning RBI single against Guardians starter Logan Allen.

But Mets starter Clay Holmes couldn’t make that lead last.

After retiring the first nine batters — and striking out five of them — Holmes ran into trouble in the fourth. He gave up a walk and three hits in the inning, including a two-out RBI single to Gabriel Arias that tied the game, 2-2.

The top of the fourth ended up being the only inning in which the Guardians reached base against Holmes, who was pulled after five frames and 75 pitches.

Tuesday’s start was the 10th in a row in which Holmes, a converted reliever, pitched 5 1/3 innings or fewer. He pitched at least six innings in seven of his first 13 starts.

The Mets overhauled their bullpen before the trade deadline in an attempt to shorten games, but that strategy didn’t work on Tuesday.

Rogers, whom the Mets acquired from the San Francisco Giants, retired the first two batters of the seventh, but back-to-back singles by Brayan Rocchio and C.J. Kayfus set up Kwan’s heroics.

It was the first run that Rogers has allowed in three appearances with the Mets.

The Mets did not manage a baserunner after Juan Soto drew a one-out walk in the fifth inning against Allen.

Four relievers combined to throw four 1-2-3 innings in the final four frames, despite Cleveland being without its star closer, Emmanuel Clase, who is on paid leave amid a sports-betting investigation.

The Mets (63-51) will attempt to prevent a sweep on Wednesday afternoon.