There was no way of knowing how Brandon Sproat would handle high-stakes pressure and responsibility with the Mets' postseason hopes hanging in the balance. But what the rookie right-hander offered in the opener of a season-altering series didn't lower the panic meter.
With sole possession of the NL's third wild-card spot on the line, Sproat found himself in the midst of growing frustrations on Friday night, as he couldn't complete his second turn through the Marlins' lineup in the Mets' lifeless 6-2 loss at LoanDepot Park. The letdown dropped them to 82-78 and into a tie with the Reds, who own the head-to-head tiebreaker.
"We've put ourselves in this position," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. "Here we are, we've got to come back tomorrow and the next day now. We've got to win the next two now and see what happens. But we did it to ourselves."
The disheartening outing from Sproat didn't start on a sour note. He cruised through the first four innings with a 2-0 lead, and while he plunked two and walked one before giving up his first hit in the fourth, there weren't any warning signs of a meltdown. But the Mets' fears were soon realized.
Sproat fell apart in the fifth, allowing back-to-back singles and then a disastrous game-tying triple. He shook off the brutal sequence by inducing a pair of groundouts, but a two-out single knocked him out of the game, and then Gregory Soto threw gasoline onto the fire by allowing an additional three runs.
"The fastball had been working all night. That inning, they just found a couple barrels," Sproat said. "It's kind of something you learn from… You've got to be present every single inning. I was still present there. They put a couple of hits together, and it didn't go my way. That's baseball, that's the game."
In a critical game, Sproat fell short of a quality appearance. He struck out a season-low two across 4.2 innings (61 pitches), and with four runs charged to his ledger, he wrapped up his first September in the majors with a 4.79 ERA and 1.21 WHIP over four appearances (20.2 innings).
Sproat fell victim to some hard contact, and shoddy defense from his teammates contributed to the fifth-inning implosion. But the Mets needed length and efficiency from the youngster — even if the request seemed unfair to someone with little big league experience.
The Mets will enter Saturday in must-win mode — another loss and a Reds win would seal fates and knock them out of playoff contention.
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