By the time Devin Williams came set and threw his third pitch to Starling Marte, it was almost predictable.
Marte was way ahead swinging at Williams’ first changeup.
He fouled off the second one, too.
So with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning — and the Mets trailing the Brewers by a run — Williams, of course, threw another changeup.
And Marte followed with another swing and miss, stranding the Mets’ seventh, eighth and ninth runners left on base in their 3-2 loss Thursday night.
Marte lined a single in the third inning, but otherwise, he grounded into two double plays, including a costly one with the bases loaded in the seventh, and finished 1-for-5 with two strikeouts.
“When you got a guy that’s changeup is an out-pitch, any over-aggressiveness plays right into his hand,” manager Buck Showalter said about Marte facing Williams.
Marte didn’t address reporters postgame, but Showalter and Francisco Lindor both reiterated how there were plenty of plays the Mets could’ve made to flip the game.
The blame couldn’t fall on one at-bat, one poor pitch by Max Scherzer.
Lindor even pointed to his decision on a ground ball as one.
But Marte, twice, was the Mets’ hitter tasked with succeeding in at-bats occurring within the game’s most crucial situations, and despite being a player who Showalter said has “a lot of want-to,” Marte couldn’t convert the Mets’ opportunities into runs.
After the Brewers took the lead in the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly, Marte had a chance to tie the game with one out and the bases loaded.
Mark Canha led off with a single.
Pinch-hitter Danny Mendick reached on a fielder’s choice when Milwaukee third baseman Brian Anderson made an error.
And to load the bases, Brandon Nimmo was hit by a pitch.
That set up Marte to build on his 24 RBIs and inch closer to the 63 that he compiled during his All-Star campaign in 2022.
But he grounded a routine ball to the second baseman, sparking an inning-ending double play.
In that situation, Showalter said, Marte needs to try to get the ball up. It’s easy to say, “We gotta do this, we gotta do that,” Showalter added, but “they don’t allow you to do it.”
“They’re sinking the ball at the bottom of the zone,” Showalter said about Elvis Peguero, who the Brewers called in from the bullpen before Marte’s at-bat. “We need a swinging bunt in that situation. We need a wild pitch. A break that kinda goes our way.
“And right now, we’re pretty snake-bit with it. But keep thinking that tomorrow’s the day that we get some footing.”
