The Mets head into the All-Star break looking like the team they’ve been just about all year.
A routine double play away from finishing a crisp win against the Red Sox, they instead fumbled away a two-run lead in the top of the ninth and dropped their third straight.
They fell behind in the 10th, when Brooks Raley allowed a sacrifice fly to Anthony Seigler and the Mets couldn’t score in the bottom of the inning.
The 3-2 defeat at Citi Field completed a sweep by the surging Red Sox, who have won nine straight.
Francisco Lindor, who drove in two runs earlier in the game, cost the Mets in the ninth.
After seven brilliant innings from rookie left-hander Zach Thornton and a shutout inning from Luke Weaver, Devin Williams and the Mets seemed to have this one wrapped up.
With one out and Cedanne Rafaela on first, Williams got Romy González to hit a grounder right at Lindor, but the shortstop booted it to extend the inning.
Williams then walked Caleb Durbin to load the bases for Andruw Monasterio, who walked to force in a run.
Jarren Duran then blooped a single to right to tie the game.
On the verge of complete collapse, Williams got pinch-hitter Masataka Yoshida to line to second and Zack Short doubled off Monasterio to end the inning and keep it tied.
But Raley couldn’t keep the free runner from scoring an inning later and pinch-hitter Jorge Polanco struck out to open the bottom of the 10th, Brett Baty flied to left and Bo Bichette, also pinch-hitting, grounded out to end it.
It wasted Thornton’s performance.
Making just the third start of his MLB career, Thornton took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and dominated the Red Sox lineup.
The 24-year-old tossed seven shutout innings before being replaced by Weaver to start the eighth.
Lindor delivered an RBI double with one out in the first and then homered in the sixth.
Thornton pitched well in his most recent outing in the majors, when he limited the Phillies to one run in six innings, was called up from Triple-A Syracuse to close out the first half and was even better against Boston.
He allowed just two hits and a pair of walks over his seven innings and needed just 82 pitches.
With the Mets desperate for starting pitching, Thornton should be in line to get some valuable major league experience down the stretch, especially with Freddy Peralta seemingly about to be moved prior to the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
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Kodai Senga is out of the rotation, Clay Holmes is still sidelined by the fractured fibula and Tobias Myers was optioned to Syracuse again Sunday.
That leaves potentially Nolan McLean, Christian Scott and Sean Manaea fronting the rotation over the last two months of the regular season.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
