Trevor Williams roughed up in Mets’ loss to Rangers as NL East lead thins

The Rangers’ bats were loud early, and the Mets’ were quiet late. 

Trevor Williams buried the Mets in a hole they never climbed out of in a 7-3 loss to Texas in front of 26,494 at Citi Field on a sunny Saturday afternoon. 

The Mets (48-30) have lost four of their past five ahead of the rubber match against the Rangers on Sunday and their lead in the NL East was cut to three games ahead of the Braves, who played later Saturday. 

The Rangers’ four home runs, including three in the first four innings — two of them from right fielder Kole Calhoun — were enough to sink the Mets, who were held scoreless after the fourth inning and finished 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. 

On a day the Mets officially announced Jacob deGrom’s rehab assignment would begin Sunday (two days before Max Scherzer’s scheduled return to the major league rotation), Williams, a typically reliable fill-in, underscored the team’s need for the co-aces to return. 

Williams has pitched well as a swingman this season, but he gave up back-to-back homers in the second inning to Calhoun and Jonah Heim that traveled an estimated 792 feet combined. 

The Mets had jumped out in front in the first inning on Starling Marte’s eighth homer of the season, a two-run shot. But they went from a two-run edge to a two-run hole that proved insurmountable. 

Williams lasted just 3 ²/₃ innings, in which he finished with as many strikeouts (three) as home runs allowed. Each of the five runs with which he was charged came from the long ball, the last of them a second homer by Calhoun. 

After Williams was removed, the Mets’ bullpen gave the offense a chance to strike — a chance that was wasted. 

The Mets scored just one run after the first inning, on an Eduardo Escobar home run in the fourth. This time the third baseman, who hasgotten hot, crushed one from the right side of the plate after he had gone deep from the left side on Friday. 

Escobar’s homer made it 5-3, but the Mets got no closer. Their best subsequent threat arrived in the bottom of the fifth, when Marte singled ahead of Francisco Lindor’s walk, bringing Pete Alonso and excitement to the plate. But while the slugger hit the ball hard, it went right to shortstop Corey Seager, who started an inning-ending double play. 

Alonso had another chance in the eighth inning, when Lindor had reached second without an out, but he swung through strike three. Lindor was among seven left stranded. 

The Rangers tacked on single runs in the eighth and ninth off Tommy Hunter. Seager poked a single against the shift to plate the first one, while Leody Taveras’ homer represented the final run of the game. 

There are times the Mets can ride a 2-0 lead in the first inning to a victory without much drama. But those days are far more frequent when deGrom or Scherzer is on the mound.