'Something every team goes through': Mets bats go quiet

NEW YORK -- After a long, successful West Coast stretch, the Mets returned to Citi Field on Tuesday night and were blanked by the Nationals in a 5-0 loss.

The last time the Nationals shut out the Mets was on June 18, 2021. Is it possible they were a little flat coming home after the road trip and a cross-country flight?

“Flat? No. That’s a very convenient excuse, one our guys will not use,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said. “It’s something every team goes through. You could always come up with something like that. I’ll be surprised if any of our guys went there.”

Nobody on the Mets used the long road trip as an excuse. New York has now lost three consecutive games and must find a way to get length from its starting pitchers. Left-hander Joey Lucchesi was the last pitcher to give the Mets length, throwing seven scoreless innings against the Giants this past Friday.

Four days later, it was right-hander José Butto's turn to toe the rubber. He tossed 4 2/3 innings, allowing two runs on four hits and six walks while pitching on eight days' rest.

The last time he pitched was April 16 against the Athletics. Butto was told Monday that he was going to be recalled from Triple-A Syracuse, but was not informed until Tuesday that he was going to start the game.

Butto got off to a good start by retiring the side in order in the first inning. But, he was grinding the rest of his time on the mound.

With one out in the second, Keibert Ruiz swung at a 2-0 pitch and hit a solo home run over the right-center-field fence. An inning later, Joey Meneses made it a 2-0 game when he singled up the middle, scoring Luis García.

“Everything gets magnified because we didn’t score any runs, so we were hoping to get five out of [Butto],” Showalter said. “It was a quick spot start, a head’s up, bring him up. I thought he competed well enough. He didn’t lose touch with the game. … The way things were going offensively, there wasn't going to be much margin for error for us.”

Butto didn’t have any excuses as to why he had an uneven outing. He said he did everything right before the outing -- sticking to his routine bullpen sessions -- and felt he was prepared to pitch against the Nationals.

“It wasn’t the best of days for me,” said Butto through interpreter Alan Suriel. “I battled as best as I could and things didn’t come out the way I wanted it to. I wasn’t the best at commanding my pitches and locating my pitches, especially my changeup. Unfortunately, we lost the game and that’s really the disappointing part about it.”

Butto left the game with two outs in the fifth inning in favor of righty Jimmy Yacabonis, yet he didn’t fare any better. Yacabonis allowed three runs in two innings, highlighted by García's two-run double in the sixth inning.

The Mets’ offense was stagnant when facing right-hander Josiah Gray, who pitched his best game of the season, throwing six scoreless innings and striking out nine batters.

"Just going with the game plan early on, seeing how they were adjusting to my stuff, how they were swinging the bat, how they were taking pitches and a lot of good opportunities early to just throw strike one,” Gray said. “The more we did that, the more we just commanded the zone and were able to utilize that. So, throwing a lot of strikes early and having the putaway pitches, that led to a lot of success today."

Gray started the game by retiring 12 of the first 14 hitters he faced. New York had a chance to score off Gray in the fifth inning. The team had the bases loaded with two outs, but Starling Marte struck out to end the threat.

“He threw a lot of quality pitches,” Mets left fielder Jeff McNeil said. “I don’t think our approach was very good. We swung at a lot of bad pitches. It’s tough to hit that way. He is throwing a little cutter, which is a little different, but other than that, I think he just located better.”