The perfect configuration for Juan Soto ends with a loss of the opening day for Mets

Houston – In the end, he went down to Juan Soto.

Baseball is not explicitly designed to create this type of drama: the magnet of the attention of sport in the last six months, entering the dish for its new team in the largest possible place on the opening day. It was Soto against Josh Hader, the New York get two, with two and two in ninth.

This was the script of last autumn. Regardless of how the first seven or eight inning had disappeared, the mets discovered another late equipment, often against the most dominant rescuers of the opposing team. Here it is, supercharged by the presence of Soto.

“If we have Juan at the end of the game,” said Clay Holmes, “everyone likes our possibilities.”

Juan Soto went 1 by 3 with two walks in his debut in Mets. He has lost the opportunity to deliver big with two to the ninth. (Images Thomas Shea / Image)

And after noding from the 3-0 cursor of Hader in the middle, after having dirtying a heating just above the area, Soto thought he knew what was about to happen.

“I see it really well,” he said. “His best tone is his fast ball, so I was sitting on the fast ball.”

But baseball is a game designed for deception. And so the setting for this perfect moment, for Soto to arrive and the mets to obtain a victory, turned out to be a mistake of care.

Hader sparked a cursor that started in the area and ended in the batter box for the right hand. Soto, prepared to attack the fast ball, greeted him.

The astros beat the Mets 3-1 on the opening day.

“Rather bad pitch,” said manager Carlos Mendoza.

A bad tone made bad more by the context: while loading the bases without anyone in the inening, Hader could not rely on that cursor. He had sold Mars and Tyrone Taylor to Starling. He had not been able to end up Luisangel Acuña with it and walked it. Hader saved his best, however, for the best moment.

“I think that’s why I was able to get it to that cursor, only because of the back and forth that we had at a crunchy moment of the genre, has always gone to Fastball,” said Hader. “Maybe he was only sitting in red and was running out.”

“We all want to do something in a big point. We all want to knock,” Soto said. “He just brought me to that situation.”

New York also lost 3-1 the opening day last year. It is only the second time since 1969, when they fell at 0-8 the opening day, that the mets lost consecutive openers of the season. Perhaps it is not a bad omen: the other time was in 1999-2000, years in which a loss in the NLC preceded a banner. The project is established.

Thursday was not the project that Mets want to follow the next 161 games. Their offense was calmed down by Framber Valdez and his Platin of Power for Seven Inning. They got six runners to the eighth and ninth, but they only brought a house to the fly of Francisco Lindor’s sacrifice. They concluded the 0-for-6 day with the runners in a score position.

In a sense, at least, a loss of the opening day reflects the priorities of the mets in the construction of rosters each of the last two seasons. The remarkable New York record on the opening day owes so much to the historical quality of its ACE start launchers. When delivering the ball to a hall of fame or a winner of Cy Young, it is likely that you will win, the opening day or any other day. (The mets are 24-6 the opening day when they give the ball to Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, Tom Glavine, Johan Santana or Jacob Degrom; they are 17-17 with all the others.)

After exchanging a pair of appetizers of the Hall of Fame in 2023, the mets did not acquire that type of ace, underlining the depth instead. Although it is not a bad strategy for a season of 162 games-like it seemed good in the second half of last year-it is prepared for a potential disappointment on the first day of the season. Holmes, whose last start of the great league came before Degrom had ever won a Cy Young, could not combine it in Valdez.

By doing this first start from September 2018, Holmes showed glimpses of why the mets converted it safely to the role and the growing pains looming with that transition. Holmes’ things should play as an appetizer: he held the ball on the ground for most of Thursday and Houston managed five singles from him. With a single appetizer of astros ranging from the left side, Holmes did not do it shows his new deliveries Much-ma generated a swing with his new change to that left-handed in Yordan Alvarez.

However, Holmes’s command was not as acute as it had been throughout spring. He was in the area more than he would like with his platinum, and issued four walks and hit another batter in 4 inning 2/3. Ten of the 23 Astros he faced reached the base.

“The important thing is the walks,” Holmes said. “My game is limiting the snail and limits the free steps. I gave them those free extra steps that gave them enough basic runners to create a little traffic there.”

The only stroke of the joke in the second cotpred house plate on a ground. The lead walk in the third returned home the second of the two consecutive singles. Another race marked that frame when Acuña savely launched first on a potential double game of inning.

Holmes was looking forward to the next five days before his second start. He will use time to evaluate how he used his mix and how to better control his platin.

The Mets were looking forward to Friday.

“A game,” said Mendoza, undoubtedly aware that what happens on the first day or even the first week of a season is not necessarily harmful. “We have another tomorrow.”

(Superior Photo of Juan Soto: Tim Warner / Getty Images)