NEW YORK — Francisco Lindor lingered on the infield dirt with his legs outstretched and stared down at his glove.
Devin Williams glanced skyward as he unfurled a fastball low and away with the bases loaded and allowed a run to score.
They were the faces of desperation as the Mets let a potential uplifting performance heading into the All-Star break unravel into another dispiriting loss.
The Mets entered the ninth inning with a two-run lead on the shoulders of a dominating performance from Zach Thornton but saw it capsize with a Lindor error and Williams blown save. The Mets could not pick up the pieces and suffered a 3-2 loss to the Red Sox in 10 innings on Sunday afternoon in front of 37,638 fans at Citi Field.
“It’s frustrating for everybody in the clubhouse, not just from the manager’s seat. Those guys want to win. This was a tough first half in many respects and we have to take a level of ownership of ourselves and every single person in that team has a level of responsibility to flip the script going into the second half.”
An appropriate end to a dismal first half
The Mets have found ways to lose games throughout the first half, from shoddy defense to inconsistent pitching to nonexistent offense.
Sunday’s loss was a bit of a novelty as it was only the second loss in 34 games in 2026 when the Mets entered the ninth inning with a lead.
The club limps into the break with a 40-57 record – its worse mark since 2003 when the team finished with 66 wins.
“It wasn’t good,” Lindor said. “Just not to the standard that we have here and definitely not what we expected. It comes down to execution.”
A rough close for Francisco Lindor, Devin Williams
The Mets had executed for the better part of eight innings on Sunday, with Lindor supplying both of the Mets runs on a first-inning RBI double and a sixth-inning solo shot to stake them to a 2-0 lead.
It came to a crashing down in the ninth as Williams gave up a bloop single to Cedanne Rafaela before recording the first out. Williams got a sharp ground ball to the middle of diamond from Romy Gonzalez but Lindor bobbled the potential double play ball for his fourth error of the season.
“Just didn’t complete the play,” Andy Green said. “I know who he is already, and he’ll take ownership over that. He has high expectations for himself, and I think we have confidence the ball goes back his way, that play is made going forward.”
Williams could not put either of the next Red Sox batters away walking Tsu-Che Cheung on seven pitches and Andruw Monasterio on six to push across the Red Sox’s first run. Then, Jarren Duran blooped in a RBI single in front of a sliding Carson Benge to tie the game.
Williams has only blown two saves this season, and both have come in the last week. The Red Sox moved ahead on a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning and the Mets had no answer.
“It hasn’t been fun,” Williams said of the first-half woes. “Not a lot of celebrating going on in this clubhouse right now, but you get to take a couple days off and just show up and try and do it again.”
Zach Thornton’s wasted gem
The Mets’ late-game collapse produced a wart on an otherwise bright outing by Zach Thornton in his third career start.
Thornton did not allow a hit for the first 4⅓ innings against the Red Sox before working around a one-out double by Monasterio in the fifth inning. The left-hander closed with seven scoreless innings, allowing two hits and issuing two walks while striking out five. He needed just 82 pitches to get through those frames.
“(He) was really good. It was his third major league start against a lineup that has hit left-handed pitching all season long. Luis Torrens called a great game for him. They kept their hitters off balanced the entire game,” Green said. “He missed barrels the entire game. He got to some punch-outs. It was fun to see. It was encouraging for us as we look to round out to the rotation.”
Green said that Thornton will now get another turn in the rotation when the Mets come out of the All-Star break.
Thornton has gotten progressively better at the major league level since he allowqed four earned runs in 4.1 innings in his debut on May 20 against the Nationals. He held the Phillies to one earned runs on five hits and one walk across six innings with seven strikeouts last time out and added his second straight quality start on Sunday to lower his ERA to 2.60.
“I think just the guys around this clubhouse put their arm around me, telling me it’s really the same game as I’m playing out in Triple A and Double A,” Thornton said. “So going out and using my pitches to be effective.”
Now, following a spoiled opportunity, the left-hander will seek his first career win on the other side of the break.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Mets’ ninth-inning collapse offers appropriate end to dismal 1st half
