Diamondbacks Drop Series to Mets Behind Lackluster Offense

PHOENIX -- The Arizona Diamondbacks lost the rubber match of a three-game set with the New York Mets at home on Wednesday by a score of 7-1. Arizona's bats were almost completely silent, and Merrill Kelly ran into a late wall.

Kelly's outing began in impressive fashion. The right-hander tossed a 1-2-3 first inning and worked around a fielding error by Tim Tawa to record a scoreless second. After a one-out Francisco Lindor double in the third, Kelly proceeded to set down nine straight.

That streak was broken up by Juan Soto, who sent an inside fastball over the wall in center field to give the Mets a 1-0 lead, but he limited the scoring to one. With his pitch count in good shape, and no sign of his recurrent cramping issue, he went back out for the seventh inning.

But that's when things began to take a turn for the right-hander. He proceeded to surrendered a leadoff double, followed by an RBI single and RBI triple, spotting the Mets a pair of insurance runs and a 3-0 cushion. Left-hander Jalen Beeks entered with one out and collected the final two outs without further damage.

Still, Kelly exited with a solid final line, pitching 6.1 innings and allowing three runs. He allowed six hits, but did not walk a batter, and struck out six.

Beeks pitched a decently efficient 1.1 innings, but was bit by Soto's second homer of the game — the second time Soto has had a two-homer game against Arizona. Jose Castillo walked three and allowed a double and sac fly over 1.1 innings, allowing New York to put the game out of reach.

But the D-backs' offense certainly didn't offer much of a chance to win. Despite working an impressive five walks off Kodai Senga, they only managed two base hits against the righty.

Arizona recorded six base hits on the day but stranded seven, going 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.

After an Eugenio Suárez walk, Alek Thomas rapped a sharp double to the left-field gap. But Suárez was cut down at home, and Thomas was eventually stranded. Similarly, the D-backs worked a pair of walks to lead off the third, but a poor bunt attempt by Geraldo Perdomo and a routine ground ball double play from Pavin Smith wasted another opportunity.

Once Senga exited, Arizona got a pair of two-out singles from Thomas and Tawa, but Ketel Marte's pinch-hit at-bat resulted in an easy groundout to second base.

The D-backs' lone run came off the bat of Corbin Carroll, who blasted his 11th home run of the season to dead center to lead off the eighth inning. The ball traveled 427 feet at nearly 107 MPH the bat.

Perdomo then singled on a hard ground ball, but never made it past first base. Arizona went down without a baserunner in the ninth, dropping to 19-18.

The Diamondbacks will welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers to Chase Field on Thursday at 6:40 p.m.