Biggest roster question marks exposed in loss to the Padres

A 4-1 loss against Yu Darvish (now 5-0 lifetime against them in 8 tries) isn’t something to feel too ashamed of. The San Diego Padres are a good team and one of the bigger threats to knock out the New York Mets if they were to meet the postseason.

The first game out of the All-Star break didn’t go the way the Mets had wanted. They mustered only four hits against the Padres with Luis Guillorme having the lone extra-base hit, an RBI double.

The biggest question marks on the Mets roster were exposed in this one from the lineup card to the actual action on the field.

The Mets roster was exposed in their first game of the second half

Let’s start with the lineup. It’s pretty normal even when we get to Eduardo Escobar batting sixth. Luis Guillorme has done enough to prove he can play regularly so we can’t even really get all that upset about him batting seventh. He did, after all, have the only RBI of the game.

Even so, with Escobar struggling mightily this year and Guillorme being a light-hitter you would prefer to have in the eight or nine slot, it can only mean the lineup gets worse.

Travis Blankenhorn was the man called up to bat eighth and be the team’s DH. He went hitless which surprised nobody. Blankenhorn might be a decent backup infielder to carry for a short period of time. If he is your DH, you have problems. If your DH is batting eighth, your entire roster needs a boost. Fortunately, Daniel Vogelbach should at least supply them with some pop against righties.

The Mets were stuck with Tomas Nido in the nine-hole and even he had to leave early with third-string catcher Patrick Mazeika coming in to replace him. Nido should be fine but the catcher spot remains a weak point on this club. It feels worse given how the lineup looks ahead of them.

The starting lineup was bad but it was Joely Rodriguez on the mound in the seventh that allowed a leadoff home run to extend San Diego’s lead. Seth Lugo couldn’t stop the scoring either with an error from Mazeika contributing to the fourth run of the game against them.

It’s one game. Nobody is in panic mode yet. The Padres have handled the Mets this year and this series might not look much different than it did in game one. San Diego has one of the most stacked rotations in baseball. So do the Mets but the difference on this night came down to a few small mistakes.