McLean tosses quality start, but Mets can't cash in on Boston's travel woes

NEW YORK – Mets right-hander Nolan McLean threw six solid innings on Friday, but the Red Sox ended up winning the game, 6-2, at Citi Field.

It was a game that was delayed 38 minutes because the Red Sox had multiple flight issues getting from Chicago to the Big Apple. Boston finally arrived at 5:00 p.m. ET. The wait had no effect on McLean.

“It was probably a little tougher on Boston, so kudos to those guys for showing up and playing the way they did,” McLean said. “Me getting delayed for [38] minutes or whatever it was, isn’t going to make or break the outing. No excuses on that front.”

It wasn’t McLean’s fault that he was behind the 8-ball in the opening inning. Anthony Seigler led off the frame and hit a fly ball that left fielder Juan Soto couldn’t handle for a two-base error. Four batters later, the Red Sox had runners on first and third, when Masataka Yoshida doubled down the third-base line, scoring Seigler and Wilyer Abreu. Both runs were unearned because of the Soto error.

Boston had a chance to score more runs off McLean. In the fourth frame, it looked like Connor Wong scored on a single by Tsung-Che Cheng, but the call was overturned after replay showed that catcher Francisco Alvarez tagged Wong before he reached home plate. Right fielder Carson Benge made a beautiful throw to Alvarez for the final out.

In the fifth, the Red Sox had runners on second and third with one out, but McLean managed to get out of the inning after Romy Gonzalez struck out and Yoshida grounded out to end the threat.

McLean’s only clean frame occurred an inning later as he tossed a 1-2-3 sixth, but he exited still trailing and lost his sixth game of the season. Given the circumstances, it was impressive that McLean lasted that long. Boston made him work. McLean was up to 58 pitches after three innings, but found enough strength to throw 40 more.

“I thought he was really good,” Mets interim manager Andy Green said about McLean. “[The Red Sox] did a nice job fouling off a lot of good pitches to extend at-bats – to drive his pitch count up early. As the game wore on, McLean found more of his groove. …You go six, give up no earned runs and punch out seven, that’s a pretty good outing. A lot of credit goes to him for settling in.”

McLean’s counterpart, Sonny Gray, also lasted six innings and allowed his only run in the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Soto.

“It’s what he has done all year. He puts the ball on the ground and uses the [entire] plate,” Green said about Gray. “We put ourselves in scoring position the entire day and we weren't able to cash in anything.”

With Gray out of the game and Boston ahead, 4-1, New York had a chance to at least tie the score in the eighth against right-hander Garrett Whitlock. The Mets had runners on first and third with no outs, but they left them both stranded.

“Against Whitlock, we had a really good opportunity with the heart of the order up. We didn’t push any across,” Green said.

The bullpen faltered in the late innings. The Red Sox added to the scoring in the top of the seventh when reliever A.J. Minter allowed a two-run homer to Seigler. Two innings later, Abreu added a two-run tater off Cionel Pérez to make it a five-run game and further dampen any chances of a Mets comeback.