Mariners bats stay quiet yet again in loss to Mets, rookie Nolan McLean

NEW YORK – The nature of this Mariners team seems clear by now. Throw an ace, a Cy Young winner, someone considered an elite arm and there’s a good chance the M’s are going to figure out a way to win that game.

Ask Tarik Skubal, Jacob DeGrom, Garrett Crochet, Paul Skenes or Nathan Eovaldi.

Throw a journeyman, or in the case of Saturday afternoon a highly touted rookie in his debut, and the M’s bats will be rather silent.

This time it was Mets rookie Nolan McLean making his major-league debut shutting down the Mariners in a 3-1 win before 42,978 spectators at Citi Field.

At some point in the future, getting shut down by McLean in his first game might not look so bad. But the Mets top pitching prospect, and one of the top arms in the minors, continued a frustrating stretch of missing offense for the Mariners through the first half of their East Coast road swing.

“We knew he was going to spin it pretty well, and I thought he did just that,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said.

After erupting for 11 runs and 16 hits in the opener on Friday, the Mariners bats that were frozen most of the series in Baltimore returned as they managed just four hits and didn’t score until Eugenio Suárez hit his 38th homer of the season with one out in the ninth inning off one-time Mariners closer Edwin Diaz.

The pitching was pretty good on both sides as Bryan Woo allowed only one run and extended his streak of pitching at least six innings in every start this year.

But when there’s no offensive help, there’s not much Woo or any pitcher can do.

“I mean, whether it looks pretty or not, just trying to do my job to keep us in the game,” Woo said. “Feel like I was able to do that.”

McLean was highly regarded because of his array of spin to go along with a pretty good fastball. He put all of it on display against the M’s. More than half the pitches he threw were breaking pitches – either a sweeper, a curveball or a cutter. He got the Mariners to whiff on 10 of those to go along with another nine that were called strikes.

McLean didn’t give up a hit until Cal Raleigh singled in the third inning, and Dominic Canzone had the only other hit off the right-hander. He walked four but struck out eight.

And the one time the M’s had a chance to start a rally against McLean, he pulled off a spectacular defensive play. With the bases loaded and one out in the third, McLean backhanded Julio Rodríguez’s grounder up the middle and started an inning-ending double play.

“Nifty little play there with the bases loaded to get the double play and took the wind out of our sails there early,” Wilson said.

Such is the state of the Mets – who won for just the third time in the past 17 games – that manager Carlos Mendoza was roundly booed by the home fans when he jogged to the mound to remove McLean in the sixth. That came after he walked Raleigh, but then dotted a 94 mph fastball on the outside corner to get Rodríguez looking for the first out of the sixth inning and the last of his eight strikeouts.

Josh Naylor took reliever Gregory Soto to the warning track in right field before Juan Soto ran it down for the second out. Raleigh forced his way into scoring position by stealing second and advancing to third when the throw from Francisco Alvarez went into center field, but Suárez struck out and stranded the tying run 90 feet away.

The M’s went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

“We’re able to create some traffic, especially there in the third inning, but weren’t able to cash in a couple of times,” Wilson said.

The only time the Mets got to Woo was a two-batter span in the third inning. Brett Baty singled. Francisco Lindor doubled and Baty scored. That was it, although the Mets had innings where Woo pitched with traffic on the bases.

Woo’s streak of pitching six innings in every start this year was at risk at ending after two-out singles by Jeff McNeil and Alvarez, and a 3-2 walk to Cedric Mullins loaded the bases in the sixth. Ronny Mauricio was likely Woo’s final batter no matter what as he ticked into triple-digits with his pitch count. But Woo threw two good fastballs, the second of which Mauricio skied into the glove of Naylor for the final out of the inning.

“You hope that over time you kind of build that confidence in your manager and your team that they give you that opportunity. So just glad I was able to get it, and then also come through on it,” Woo said.

Since 2010, Woo’s streak of 24 straight starts pitching six innings or more to start a season is tied for fifth-most with Jered Weaver, who accomplished it in 2011. Woo’s streak is the longest by any pitcher since Zack Greinke pitched six innings in all 32 of his starts in 2015.

“Trying to do my job on a consistent basis. The most important thing, though, is just giving us a chance to win every time I get the ball,” Woo said. “Obviously some nights it doesn’t work out, but think the consistency is just what I’m most proud of.”

The Mets added on in the seventh off Caleb Ferguson as Soto’s sacrifice fly and Pete Alonso’s double past the diving glove of Suárez plated a pair. Alonso joined Raleigh and Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber as the only players in the majors this season with 100 RBIs.