is expected to be out for at least a month<\/a> with a strained left calf in addition to the looming sell-off ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline.<\/p>\nFor the second straight night, Dodgers fans made Citi Field sound like Chavez Ravine as the owners of the best record in baseball pulled out a 4-3 victory in Queens on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Nolan McLean wasn\u2019t helped by his defense \u2014 a Brett Baty throwing error and a Francisco Alvarez passed ball contributed to a three-run Dodgers third inning. <\/p>\n
The punchless Mets predictably couldn\u2019t touch Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who won for the 11th time this season. <\/p>\n
The right-hander pitched around trouble in the first, third and fifth innings, and delivered six innings of one-run ball. <\/p>\n
Nollan McLean watches Kyle Tucker round the bases after his solo home run in the third inning of the Mets\u2019 4-3 loss to the Dodgers on July 25, 2026 at Citi Field. Robert Sabo for New York Post<\/p>\n
He held the Mets to 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n
The loss marked the second time this season McLean has come up short against Yamamoto despite allowing just a total of three earned runs in 13 innings against the powerhouse Dodgers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat guy is unbelievable. It\u2019s fun to watch him at the same time,\u201d McLean said. \u201cWish he wouldn\u2019t pitch so good against us.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLean completed six innings for his seventh straight start, allowing just two earned runs. <\/p>\n
He struck out seven, walked two and allowed seven hits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Nolan was solid. Short of spectacular, but solid,\u201d interim manager Andy Green said.<\/p>\n
A two-run pinch-hit double by Tyrone Taylor in the eighth got the Mets within a run, but A.J. Ewing struck out to end the inning, and the Mets went down in order in the ninth.<\/p>\n
They have now lost four of their past five games, falling to a season-low 19 games under .500 at 43-62.<\/p>\n
A.J. Ewing strikes out to end the eighth inning of the Mets\u2019 loss to the Dodgers. Jason Szenes \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
Only the Rockies have a worse record in the National League.<\/p>\n
McLean allowed a leadoff homer in the third to Kyle Tucker, his second homer in as many days after entering the series with seven this season. <\/p>\n
The Mets courted Tucker in the winter, but lost out to the Dodgers. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Then, the Mets let McLean down defensively. <\/p>\n
With one on and one out, Baty\u2019s throw hit the runner, setting the Dodgers up at first and third. <\/p>\n
McLean didn\u2019t help himself, failing to find the bag on a potential 3-6-1 double play that would\u2019ve gotten him out of the inning.<\/p>\n
Dalton Rushing rounds second base and heads to third on a throwing error by Brett Baty (not pictured) during the third inning of the Mets\u2019 loss to the Dodgers. Robert Sabo for New York Post<\/p>\n
Later in the frame, Alvarez boxed a breaking ball that popped in and out of his glove, enabling Andy Pages to score the third Dodgers run.<\/p>\n
It is what Mets fans have come to expect from this team: sloppy play in the field and not enough of a response at the plate.<\/p>\n
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There were chants of \u201cLet\u2019s go Dodgers\u201d throughout this one-sided contest, starting at first pitch. <\/p>\n
Friday night, Mets fans booed down most of those chants. <\/p>\n
But perhaps taking a cue from the home team, they didn\u2019t show anywhere close to the same resistance a night later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The good news is the Mets are improving their MLB draft lottery odds with every loss. Expect plenty…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":961073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[5605,2502,1266,1305,85371,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-961072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-kyle-tucker","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-nolan-mclean","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116988154119470686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=961072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/961073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=961072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=961072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}