LOS ANGELES — One dreadful plate appearance after another, the Mets got swept out to the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday and sank to the bottom.
Is this it? Is this rock bottom? It’s a question the Mets must ask with each new loss, hopeful for some ray of sunshine on which to latch.
Here’s one: They are finished with this series against the Dodgers. But maybe that’s not enough for this listless bunch.
Another night of offensive futility left the Mets with an 8-2 loss at Dodger Stadium that ran their losing streak to eight games. This was the seventh time during that stretch the Mets scored two runs or fewer.
“Everybody is upset,” Bo Bichette said. “You know why.”
It’s not just scoring: The Mets simply aren’t getting hits. They collected only five on this night and finished with 12 in the three-game series.
Shohei Ohtani was the chief tormentor Wednesday, pitching six dominant innings. A night earlier the Mets were stifled by Yoshinobu Yamamoto over 7 ²/₃ innings.
“It’s surprising, but you go through these things,” Bichette said. “This is a bit extreme, probably, but it doesn’t help facing two of the best in the game the last two days.”
This one turned into a runaway late, with the Dodgers receiving two homers — including a grand slam from Dalton Rushing against Devin Williams — in the eighth inning.
Clay Holmes, who departed his previous start with left hamstring tightness, gave the Mets a chance by allowing two earned runs on four hits and one walk over five innings. He was removed after 88 pitches.
“It’s one of those things where I don’t think you look around and point fingers,” Holmes said of the losing streak. “It’s not just the offense. Sometimes it’s going to happen and as pitchers we have got to be better and win games. Tonight I wasn’t good enough. You have got to look at how to win games as a team and lose them as a team.”
Hyeseong Kim launched a two-run homer in the second for the game’s first scoring. Rushing delivered a two-out double before Kim unloaded on a sinker, clearing the right-field fence.
It was the second homer Holmes allowed this season.
MJ Melendez’s first at-bat in a Mets uniform resulted in the team’s initial hit, a third-inning double. With two outs in the inning, Ohtani faced an 11-pitch at-bat against Francisco Lindor that culminated with a swinging strikeout on a 99-mph fastball that was well outside the strike zone.
Holmes received defensive help in the bottom of the inning as Luis Robert Jr. went full extension on a dive in center field to rob Freddie Freeman of an extra-base hit.
Melendez’s RBI double in the fifth sliced the Dodgers’ lead to 2-1, but a base-running gaffe cost the Mets an opportunity for a larger inning. After drawing a leadoff walk, Francisco Alvarez, believing Carson Benge’s shot to left was caught by Teoscar Hernández, retreated to first base.
The ball was trapped by Hernández and Alvarez was thrown out at second base on a fielder’s choice. After Melendez’s RBI double, Lindor was retired by Ohtani to leave runners stranded on second and third.
“I just feel like we’re not dictating at-bats, and getting beat by fastballs” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Even though there were some good fastballs from Ohtani today I feel like we have got to be able to put pressure.”
Ohtani capped his night by striking out the side in the sixth. Ohtani allowed one earned run on two hits and two walks in the 95-pitch outing.
Tobias Myers surrendered a homer to Hernández leading off the bottom of the sixth, extending the Dodgers’ lead to 3-1.
Myers threw a four-seamer over the middle that Hernandez crushed to right center for his fourth homer this season.
Benge doubled in the seventh, but was left stranded at third when Melendez whiffed against Blake Treinen to end the inning.
Any chance of a Mets comeback dissipated in the eighth on Rushing’s grand slam against Williams.
The right-hander, pitching for the first time in eight days, allowed two singles and a walk to begin the inning before Rushing cleared the center field fence.
Williams recorded just one out in the inning before he was removed.
“They are pissed, frustrated, obviously not happy about it,” Mendoza said of his players. “I want them to be pissed.”
