BOSTON — Before this series, Mets manager Luis Rojas made something known: The Red Sox can hit and score. They feature a dangerous lineup that poses quite the challenge for opponents.
And because of that, Rojas said he told his players they would need to score more runs, and hit with men in scoring position, to give themselves a chance at Fenway Park.
In the series' first game, one offense looked better than the other. One continued to strike while the other fell silent. One woke up while the other struggled.
The Red Sox defeated the Mets, 6-3, on Tuesday. Boston zapped any momentum the Mets hoped to carry over from Sunday's win over the Phillies and, because of that, New York's postseason chances took their latest hit.
The Mets (73-78) are now 6 1/2 games back of the first-place Braves, pending their result in Arizona on Tuesday night. The Mets continue inching closer toward elimination as they've lost six of their last seven games.
Red Sox begin to hit Marcus Stroman hard
In the third inning, the Red Sox loaded the bases on Marcus Stroman, but escaped unscathed with a ground ball that his defense turned into a crisp double play and a flyout.
Between the fourth and fifth innings, the Red Sox began to hit Stroman hard. Most of these balls found holes and two went over the wall.
The Mets held a two-run lead, but it quickly turned into a two run deficit.
The fourth: The Red Sox scored a run by hitting consecutive doubles, the second of which could've been an error on left fielder Kevin Pillar, who made a poor read and misplayed the ball.
The fifth: Kiké Hernández led off the inning with a home run, Kyle Schwarber doubled and Xander Bogaerts blasted a two-run shot.
At one point between the fourth and fifth innings, Boston's last five hits off Stroman flew off the bat at 104.5 mph, 100.6 mph, 103.9 mph, 103.2 mph and 110 mph. The Red Sox also had a 110.8-mph lineout after those.
The Mets were in the game until the sixth, when Miguel Castro entered, got two outs, then hit one batter and walked another. Rojas went to lefty Brad Hand, who walked left-handed hitting Schwarber before Bogaerts hit a two-run single to give the Red Sox a four-run advantage.
Boston showed why Rojas entered this series with so much respect for its offense.
Questionable send stunts inning for Mets
Following the top of the fourth inning, SNY broadcast cameras caught a frustrated Gary DiSarcina, helmet off, appearing to perhaps throw something into the wall behind the bench (it was tough to tell because the camera was not zoomed in).
The situation we can assume he was upset over: In that inning, DiSarcina, the Mets' experienced third base coach, sent Pete Alonso around third on Michael Conforto's single into the outfield. A run scored ahead of Alonso, but Hernández threw out Alonso by a mile.
The play stunted the Mets' inning. They had scored two runs to that point, but didn't score another after that. But one of the Mets' next two outs was Pillar's flyout, which could have scored Alonso had he been at third base.
This season, the Mets have often shown late-game fight. They had none in this game, other than Alonso's solo home run over the Green Monster in the eighth inning.
When thinking back on this game, it's easy to go back to that fourth inning.
The Mets scored two, but the inning had a flip side: They probably should have scored more.
It soon haunted them, when the Red Sox put the game out of reach over the next few innings.
