Final Score: Pirates 4, Mets 2 — You can take the reliever out of the bullpen, but you can't take the terrible out of the bullpen

Hey Mets fan, it turns out that the Mets offense and bullpen was not just conspiring to keep Matt Harvey from getting precious, grissiony wins. It's his spot in the rotation that was cursed! Carlos Torres experienced the terror of Harvey's rotation spot by pitching well enough to get the win on Saturday night but ending up with no decision because of a lack of support.

A.J. Burnett was pitching pretty well in this one until the fourth, when the pleasantly spry Kirk Nieuwenhuis doubled home Marlon Byrd to give New York a 1-0 lead. In the next frame, Byrd drove in a run of his own by beating out an infield single to push the Mets' lead to two.

Meanwhile, Carlos Torres was nearly unhittable for the first four inning, but he became undone in the fifth when a Justin Mercer RBI single allowed Garrett Jones to score from second base. Torres nearly let things spiral out of control from there, but Jose Tabata ended up grounding into a double play with the bases loaded to allow the Mets to escape with the lead.

Said lead wouldn't last much longer, though. Andrew McCutchen blasted a home run to center field to start off the sixth, which was being pitched by David Aardsma. In the seventh, Greg Burke and Josh Edgin allowed two more Pirates runs to score, which was plenty for Pittsburgh's vaunted bullpen to work with. Justin Wilson, Mark Melancon, and Jason Grilli shut down the Mets with just one baserunner allowed over the final three innings.

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by feslenraster; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.