Just a week ago, the Mets were playing reasonably well and could at least dream about a Red Sox-like surge to vault them into postseason contention.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since then, the faintest of pulses has become completely undetectable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reverting to the team that found different ways to lose in the season\u2019s first half, the Mets dropped their third straight and fourth in five games Friday, 3-1 to the Astros at Citi Field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The losing streak is their longest since Aug. 2 \u2014 one day before president of baseball operations David Stearns finished his trade deadline roster overhaul.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Offensively, the Mets were muted by Hunter Brown, who surrendered one earned run on five hits with 10 strikeouts over 6 \u00b2\/\u2083 innings. The Mets went hitless against Houston\u2019s bullpen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the other side, Christian Scott was on the verge of a superb outing into the sixth. But the right-hander lost the strike zone in that inning, walking three batters, all of whom scored as inherited runners for lefty Nate Lavender.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just didn\u2019t feel like I did a good job executing the sixth inning,\u201d Scott said. \u201cI didn\u2019t get a lot of whiffs today, so I felt the defense played really well. I just didn\u2019t throw the ball well in the sixth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Mets center fielder A.J. Ewing reacts after striking out against the Houston Astros in the third inning at Citi Field on Aug. 28, 2026. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n
Scott has only completed the sixth inning in two starts this season, so interim manager Andy Green saw an opportunity for growth by allowing the right-hander to continue through the middle of the order. It didn\u2019t work out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI did think today was a good day to kind of test him,\u201d Green said. \u201cHe had been pitch-efficient through five [innings], going the third time through, and he\u2019s going to look back and learn from the opportunity he had today and have a ton of confidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNext time he\u2019s staring down the middle of the order in the sixth inning, he\u2019s going to succeed in that situation. Today was a really good learning experience. It\u2019s a tough lesson because he had been so sharp for the entire day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scott\u2019s night followed clunkers in consecutive games by Robert Stock and Sean Manaea. Stock allowed seven earned runs over four innings in a loss to the Brewers. The lefty Manaea surrendered six earned runs over 5 \u00b2\/\u2083 innings a night later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Mets pitcher Christian Scott hands the ball to manager Andy Green in the sixth inning. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n
Scott\u2019s final line included five walks and one hit allowed over 5 \u00b9\/\u2083 innings. All three runs against him were earned. It followed Scott\u2019s start against the White Sox last weekend, when he walked four batters over 4 \u00b2\/\u2083 innings and allowed four earned runs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019s pitched to a 3.80 ERA over 20 starts in his first season back from Tommy John surgery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tMEts merch shop\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tNew York Post receives revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and when you make a purchase.\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cPhysically, I feel fine,\u201d Scott said. \u201cI have got to get out of this rut. I have to do a better job executing, especially later in the game, so I have to focus on that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Carson Benge smashed an RBI double against Hunter Brown in the fourth that produced the game\u2019s initial run. Francisco Lindor singled leading off for the Mets\u2019 first hit before Benge delivered a shot off the fence in right-center for his 54th RBI this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Mets third baseman Brett Baty reacts after striking out in the seventh inning against the Houston Astros. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n
Scott loaded the bases by walking Yordan Alvarez, Isaac Paredes and Jose Altuve in the sixth and was removed with one out. Lavender allowed a single to Daulton Varsho that brought in two runs. Yainer Diaz\u2019s two-out bloop RBI single placed the Mets in a 3-1 hole.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jonathan Pintaro escaped the seventh with help from Bo Bichette\u2019s glove. Bichette lunged to his right to snag Paredes\u2019 one-hop shot, turning it into an inning-ending double play. Bichette was back in the starting lineup after missing Thursday\u2019s game following a foul ball off his left foot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just a week ago, the Mets were playing reasonably well and could at least dream about a Red…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[170460,373,363,1189,99],"class_list":["post-830287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-christian-scott","tag-houston-astros","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}