Buck Showalter didn’t sound as if he regretted having David Robertson pitch to Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. with the go-ahead run at second base — and first base open — in the ninth inning Saturday.
The Mets manager, however, did lament the fact his team, which was shut out by the Blue Jays on Friday, was feeble again at the plate again in a 2-1 loss to Toronto, their second straight defeat.
Afterward, Showalter lamented the missed opportunities (his hitters went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position) more than the decision to not walk Guerrero with first base open and the struggling Cavan Biggio on deck.
Robertson ended up not getting a 1-2 curveball down enough and Guerrero ripped a double down the third base line to score George Springer from second base.
After the Mets failed to score in the bottom of the inning, they fell back to just one game over .500 (30-29).
“We just didn’t have much margin for error,’’ Showalter said of the ninth-inning situation. “We’ve had trouble scoring runs. They pitched well, but we didn’t swing the bat very well. I trusted [Robertson] there. [Guerrero] hit a ground ball and we couldn’t catch it.”
Robertson, in his second inning of work, had allowed a one-out single to Springer and then struck out Bo Bichette.
“It’s on me for not making a quality pitch there and finishing the at-bat,’’ Robertson said. “It doesn’t matter who it is at the plate, I’m in this role to get outs.”
Showalter said he considered walking Guerrero to get to Biggio, but it wasn’t on Robertson’s mind.
After Guerrero’s RBI, Erik Swanson closed it for Toronto in the bottom of the ninth. That ended another rough game for a Mets offense that was shut out for the eighth time this season on Friday.
“We’ve scored one run in 18 innings,” Showalter said of the two games against the Blue Jays. “You’re not gonna win many games that way. We have to create some margin for error for our pitchers.”
The Mets scored their only run in the second inning against Jose Berrios. The Blue Jays tied it in the sixth, with starter Tylor Megill allowing just that run over 5 ¹/₃ innings.
Megill pitched out of trouble for much of his outing. He loaded the bases in the top of the first, but struck out Matt Chapman and got Whit Merrifield to line to center to escape without allowing a run. He flirted with danger again in the second, walking the first two batters. Daulton Varsho, however, got caught in a rundown and Megill whiffed Kevin Kiermaier and Springer to end the threat.
The Mets took the lead in the bottom of the inning.
Starling Marte led off with an infield hit and Daniel Vogelbach, mired in a slump, delivered a run-scoring double to right-center for a 1-0 lead. Mark Canha, Tomas Nido and Brandon Nimmo were retired to strand Vogelbach.
Berrios shut down the Mets after that, retiring 11 of the next 12 batters.
Megill’s luck ran out in the sixth. He gave up a leadoff double to Brandon Belt and walked Chapman — the fifth free pass issued by Megill on the day.
The right-hander then got Merrifield to fly to right before he was removed for left-hander Brooks Raley, who came on to face the lefty-swinging Varsho, who had blasted a home run into the second deck in right on Friday night.
Raley got Varsho to fly to right for the second out, but Alejandro Kirk followed with a hard grounder to Lindor’s left at shortstop. Lindor couldn’t come up with the scorcher and Belt came home from second to tie the score at 1-1.
The Mets had a chance to go ahead again in the bottom of the inning after a leadoff single by McNeil and a one-out walk by Baty. Both runners advanced on a slow grounder by Marte to bring up Vogelbach, whose RBI earlier in the game was his first since May 7.
Vogelbach sent a drive to right-center, but Springer caught up to it.
