PHILADELPHIA — For Michael Conforto, the drooping of his shoulders and look to the sky said it all.
The game was within reach when he stepped to the plate in the fourth inning of the Mets’ 8-2 loss to the Phillies on Wednesday. With the bases loaded and two outs, and he was the potential go-ahead run against righthander Aaron Nola, the Phillies’ top starter.
With his final and maybe biggest pitch, Nola spotted a curveball on the outer edge of the plate, just close enough to get a called third strike from plate umpire Ryan Blakney. Conforto’s body language suggested disbelief as he walked back to the dugout, the inning over.
It was that kind of day for Conforto, who went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and nine runners left on base as the Mets (1-2) dropped their season-opening series.
His struggles were emblematic of the team’s. The Mets finished 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position, stranding 14 men.
Conforto contributed the most. In the first, with one out and Brandon Nimmo on second, he grounded out to first. In the third, with one out and Nimmo on third, he flied out to right. In the fourth, the bases-loaded strikeout. In the sixth, with two outs and two on, he struck out swinging at Archie Bradley’s curveball in the dirt. And in the eighth, the game all but out of reach, he flied out to left, leaving Nimmo on base again.
A bright spot for the Mets: Nimmo was on base a lot. He went 2-for-4 with a walk and has a .571 OBP through three games.
Conforto is hitting .200 (3-for-15) with a .467 OPS.
The loss was far from strictly Conforto’s fault, though. In his season debut, David Peterson’s rough final line matched his performance: four-plus innings, seven hits, six earned runs, two walks, five strikeouts.
Much of that damage came in the first inning, when four of the first five batters scored. Rhys Hoskins homered, the first time in the series the Phillies scored first. Alec Bohm followed with a three-run home run, scoring Bryce Harper (hard-hit double) and J.T. Realmuto (walk).
Peterson needed 38 pitches to get through the first frame. The next three: 35.
Although he did well to pitch into the fifth, he had more problems once he got there. Hoskins doubled. Harper bunted for a single. Manager Luis Rojas went to righthander Jacob Barnes, who with his first pitch in his first game with the Mets gave up a three-run homer to Realmuto, allowing both of Peterson’s runners to score.
For the Phillies (5-1), Nola grinded through four innings, holding the Mets to one run. He allowed the leadoff batter to reach in each of the first three innings, but the Mets mostly didn’t capitalize.
No. 5 starter Joey Lucchesi — temporarily available out of the bullpen because the Mets are skipping his turn in the rotation the first time through — tossed two scoreless innings, his team debut. The only baserunner he allowed was Andrew McCutchen, who tripled with two outs in the eighth when Conforto dove for but missed a sinking line drive.
That was the better than Dellin Betances, who was relegated to the sixth inning with the Mets on the wrong side of a blowout. He hit his first batter and walked his second, ultimately giving up just one run before escaping the inning. It would have been worse if not for Francisco Lindor corralling a weak grounder up the middle. He fired a one-hope throw to first, where Pete Alonso received it and held onto the base while falling down, retiring Realmuto.
