The Mets opened their series in Toronto with a mistake they never erased. George Springer turned Juan Soto’s first-inning misplay into a triple, A.J. Ewing bobbled the ball again, and Springer scored in a 3-1 loss that left New York with another bruise to absorb.
Bo Bichette was back at the Rogers Centre after more than six seasons with the Blue Jays, and the crowd had a reason to lean in. The game pitted Sean Manaea against rookie Trey Yesavage, and Manaea did not give the Mets enough clean innings to make the early lapse feel survivable. He allowed two earned runs on three hits and two walks with four strikeouts, while New York managed little after Juan Soto doubled with one out in the top of the first and was stranded at second.
That first inning mattered because it changed the shape of the night. Springer led off the bottom half with a ball that bounced past Soto, and the relay never settled into place before Ewing bobbled it and allowed the run. From there, the Blue Jays only needed one more scoring inning to keep pressure on. Luis Urías led off the fifth with a double, Myles Straw brought him home with a sacrifice fly, and the Mets were chasing the game before their offense had really settled into one.
Francisco Lindor gave them a brief opening in the seventh with a solo home run to start the inning, the kind of swing that can flip a quiet loss into a scrape. But the follow-up never came. Ewing was hit by a pitch later in the frame, then thrown out trying to steal second during Eric Wagaman’s pinch-hit at-bat. In the eighth, Francisco Alvarez doubled, Juan Soto was intentionally walked, and Bo Bichette grounded out to leave two runners stranded. By the ninth, the Mets had first and second with one out and still could not finish the rally, as Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio struck out to end it.
The 3-1 defeat was the Mets’ fifth in six games and left them 15 games below.500, a number that reflects more than one bad night. It is the mark of a club that keeps finding itself one mistake behind, then spending the rest of the evening trying to catch up. They get Blue Jays again tomorrow, and they will need a cleaner first inning if they want the series to look any different.
