learned Kodai Senga is gone for likely at least a month<\/a> with a hamstring strain suffered Thursday; 2) have decided a potential fill-in, Montas, is not quite guaranteed a rotation spot in large part because of his ineffectiveness through five rehab starts, highlighted by a Friday implosion and 3) have reason to worry about Tylor Megill.<\/p>\nBecause on Saturday, the struggles of the No. 5 starter continued in an 8-4 loss to the Rays in front of 41,662 rain-soaked fans at Citi Field, where the Mets dropped a series \u2014 snapping a streak of six series they either won or tied \u2014 before Sunday\u2019s finale.<\/p>\n
The Mets (45-26) do not need brilliance from Megill, but they need more than he provided while pitching 3 \u00b2\/\u2083 innings and allowing six runs (three earned), lowlighted by a fourth inning that \u201cspiraled\u201d on Megill, Carlos Mendoza said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBall out of the hand where he\u2019s bouncing,\u201d the manager said of pitches that were not close, \u201cand then when he came in the zone, they were all over him.<\/p>\n
Tylor Megill looks down on the ground after giving up a solo home run to a celebrating Junior Caminero (background) during the fourth inning of the Mets\u2019 8-4 loss to the Rays on June 14, 2025. Robert Sabo for New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cHe lost it there pretty much.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that inning, the Rays sent 11 batters to the plate \u2014 10 against Megill \u2014 and a Mets lead evaporated instantly. <\/p>\n
The first batter, Junior Caminero, destroyed a 2-1 sinker 409 feet to left, deep into the first deck to tie the game. <\/p>\n
Tylor Megill wears a dejected expression during the Rays\u2019 five-run fourth inning during the Mets\u2019 loss. Jason Szenes for New York Post<\/p>\n
After two more Rays reached \u2014 a plunking and a single to put runners on the corners \u2014 the frame turned on a rare safety squeeze from Taylor Walls, who dragged a bunt toward first base.<\/p>\n
In a game whose start was delayed 51 minutes by rain, Megill conceded the run and tried to get the out at first base, but he picked the ball up from wet grass, cocked it behind him and dropped it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I went to go grab it, felt like it slipped right through my fingers,\u201d said Megill, who then struck out Josh Lowe \u2014 which, because of his own error, was crucially only the second out of the inning.<\/p>\n
Given life, the Rays essentially put down the Mets with a pair of RBI singles, a seven-pitch walk to Jonathan Aranda to reload the bases, and a wild pitch that let another run score.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay\u2019s Brandon Lowe rips an RBI single during the Mets\u2019 loss to the Rays. Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to throw a sinker backdoor and just pulled it,\u201d Megill said of the wild pitch that created a 6-2 hole.<\/p>\n
After Megill lost Caminero, the inning\u2019s leadoff hitter, to a seven-pitch walk, Mendoza took the ball from him, and boos followed a head-down Megill every step to the dugout.<\/p>\n
Megill did not want to cite his most recent start at Coors Field \u2014 where the altitude affected Friday\u2019s starter, Clay Holmes, and prompted a shorter start \u2014 for the collapse after three strong innings, but the troubling trend lines extend further than last week.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Brett Baty belts a solo homer during the third inning of the Mets\u2019 loss to the Rays. Robert Sabo for New York Post<\/p>\n
Six starts into his season, Megill looked like a breakout candidate and owned a 1.74 ERA. In eight starts since the beginning of May, he has pitched to a 5.79 ERA that has elevated his season mark to 3.95.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe outings that [Megill has] been good, he\u2019s attacking, especially with the fastball \u2014 not trying to be perfect all the time,\u201d said Mendoza, whose offense consisted of home runs from Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio and a pair of RBI singles from Brandon Nimmo. \u201cAnd then the days that it doesn\u2019t go his way, he\u2019s nibbling or a night like tonight where the secondaries weren\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is possible Montas replaces Megill eventually, but the Mets are not sure what to do with the offseason addition who has been knocked around during a rehab assignment and will require a sixth minor league start. The loss of Senga has meant Paul Blackburn, who was crushed in relief Friday, is at least temporarily back in the rotation.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDelivering insights on all things Amazin\u2019s\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Mets by Mike Puma, exclusively on Sports+\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
For a group that has rolled really from Day 1, a speed bump has appeared.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot really,\u201d Mendoza said when asked if he felt his rotation depth is being tested. \u201c[These kind of starts are] going to happen.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mets\u2019 season-long strength suddenly does not seem as strong. For two and a half months, through fluctuating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,358,1443,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,185,68,1326],"class_list":{"0":"post-104658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brett-baty","10":"tag-carlos-mendoza","11":"tag-mets","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-mets","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkmets","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","19":"tag-tylor-megill"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114685115419756581","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}