The nightmare in Flushing continued Tuesday night and it’s getting late early at Citi Field.
As their season spirals down the drain, the Mets lost their 12th straight game, this one 5-3 to the Twins.
They expected it to be loud in Queens and it eventually was, as the Mets blew a three-run lead, didn’t get a hit after the fifth inning and then saw Devin Williams implode in a tie game in the top of the ninth.
It left the Mets at a new low point in 2026 with little reason for optimism that their fortunes will change anytime soon, as no team has ever made the playoffs after losing 12 games in a row.
The skid is the franchise’s longest since they dropped 12 straight in 2002.
And to think, the chilly night started off about as well as it could for a Mets team in desperate need of a turnaround.
By the end of the third, Nolan McLean had retired all nine batters he faced, striking out seven.
In the bottom of the third, Francisco Lindor turned on a 3-2, four-seam fastball from former Mets prospect Simeon Woods Richardson and blasted it 410 feet into the right field seats to provide a 3-0 lead.
But if we know anything about this Mets team, it’s that they simply don’t do easy victories.
Or, these days, they don’t do victories… at all.
Everything went downhill after the third, as the Mets stopped hitting, the Twins rallied to tie the game in the seventh and went ahead in the ninth.
The new nadir of the season came as Williams, off to a horrendous start as the closer in Queens, walked the first two batters he faced in the top of the ninth and didn’t record an out when Kody Clemens bunted to first and reached on a fielder’s choice.
With the bases loaded and the infield in, Luke Keaschall hit a chopper through the left side of the infield to give the Twins the lead.
Williams followed by walking Matt Wallner to force in a run and left to a loud chorus of boos.
Austin Warren entered and kept it close by incredibly striking out the next three batters, drawing several loud ovations.
But there was no rally in the bottom of the ninth.
McLean, who also took a no-hitter into the sixth inning against the Giants on April 3, remained perfect through the fifth, but the Mets offense was quiet after Lindor’s second homer of the season.
That allowed the Twins to get back into the game — which they did, as McLean faltered in the sixth.
Wallner led off the inning by breaking McLean’s bid for perfection with a single to left.
McLean got Royce Lewis to fly to right and then whiffed Brooks Lee for the second out.
Byron Buxton, though, followed with a two-run shot to left on a 3-1 cutter.
McLean got out of the inning with the Mets still up by a run, but gave up the lead in the seventh.
Clemens got the rally started with a double and scored on a base hit by Keaschall.
Following a visit to the mound, McLean allowed a hard-hit grounder up the middle by Wallner, but Lindor stabbed it and got the out at first to preserve the tie.
Huascar Brazobán replaced McLean and got Royce Lewis to hit a fly ball to shallow left, where Carson Benge made a running catch to end the threat.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
