LONDON — Look kids, there’s Big Ben, Parliament, a missed defensive play by the Mets.
It’s been a theme this season — the Mets were second-to-last in the major leagues defensively by one measure as play began — and Saturday they took it to a new continent: Starling Marte lost a fly ball to right field that should have retired the Phillies in the fourth inning.
Instead the ball fell, along with the Mets, in a 7-2 loss in front of 53,882 at London Stadium.
Marte said he couldn’t see Edmundo Sosa’s fly to right and had to wait for it to come out of a shadow before moving on it.
“When I saw the reaction of the hitter, because he was also kind of lost, I knew that a ball had been hit, but I just couldn’t pick it up right there,” Marte said through an interpreter. “When I saw his reaction and saw him move I was able to pick it up shortly thereafter.”
Marte’s non-catch allowed the Phillies to pile on five runs against Sean Manaea in an inning in which Bryce Harper’s solo homer might have otherwise been the only damage.
The Mets never recovered and had a three-game winning streak snapped.
The Mets will receive another opportunity in the London Series on Sunday before heading back to New York.
Entering the day, the Mets were 29th in MLB in Defensive Runs Saved at minus-30.
Marte was a key contributor to that statistic at minus-9 in right field.
“I just think we need to continue working on the positioning,” Marte said. “I think a lot of the plays I have struggled with this year have been the ones that have been down the line and I think those are the conversations that me and the coaching staff need to have going forward.”
Manaea allowed only one base runner over the first three innings, but it all crumbled for him in the fourth when he faced nine batters and surrendered six runs, with Marte’s non-play a key factor.
Manaea’s outing of 3 ²/₃ innings matched his shortest of the season.
Marte stroked an RBI double in the first against Ranger Suarez that gave the Mets a 1-0 lead.
Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
Francisco Lindor smacked a leadoff double and J.D. Martinez was hit by a pitch with two outs before Marte delivered to keep his sizzling bat hot against the Phillies.
Entering play, he owned a .370 lifetime batting average in 79 career games against the Phillies — the highest mark by an active player against an individual team with a minimum of 200 at-bats.
But Marte’s day was about to get worse: With two outs in the fourth and only one run across, Marte lost Sosa’s fly to right field.
The ball fell for an RBI single and the ensuing batter, Whit Merrifield, blasted a three-run homer that sank the Mets in a 5-1 hole.
Picking up fly balls was a challenge, according to Harrison Bader, as much as MLB worked in converting this soccer stadium into a baseball-friendly venue.
“Normally [baseball] stadiums are much higher and here we are in a soccer stadium,” Bader said. “Just the depth of the ball in the stadium is an adjustment you have to make on the run.”
Bader said it took adjusting to the speed at which balls bounced off the turf, but overall he has no issue with the stadium.
“Both teams are dealing with the same thing, so you just adjust on the go,” he said.
The Phillies started a new rally in the inning with Cristian Pache’s double and Kyle Schwarber’s RBI single that gave the Phillies a 6-1 lead.
Manaea exited and Sean Reid-Foley recorded the final out.
The damage in the inning started with Harper’s homer to right field.
Lindor singled leading off the fifth and, after Pete Alonso doubled, raced home on Martinez’s ground out, pulling the Mets within 6-2.
Suarez was removed with two outs in the sixth following consecutive singles by Jose Iglesias and Luis Torrens, who have provided surprising contributions at the bottom of the lineup over the last week.
Orion Kerkering entered to strike out Lindor, ending the threat.
Nick Castellanos homered against Danny Young in the eighth to extend the Phillies’ lead to 7-2.
“Overall, I thought we had good at-bats against Suarez, created traffic, but couldn’t get the big hit,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We couldn’t get a big hit.”
