Vargas shelled at Coors Field as Mets’ brief winning streak ends

After a lengthy rain delay, the Mets probably would have been better served if their Tuesday night game had gotten rained out. The play was sloppy from the beginning, and the Rockies took full advantage to win 10-8.

Brandon Nimmo got the Mets on the board early when he singled to lead off the game. Asdrubal Cabrera followed with a lucky pop fly single and the Mets had runners on with nobody out. Nimmo then tagged up twice on fly balls by Michael Conforto and Todd Frazier to score the game’s first run.

The Mets’ and Nimmo’s luck changed the next inning when Nimmo lost a pop up in the lights. That brought home the Rockies’ first run and was a harbinger of things to come. Nobody was sharp in this one. Not the defense and certainly not the pitching.

Amed Rosario had a tough day in the field as well. He had a chance to throw out a runner in the first but hesitated, he threw away a potential double play ball in the second, and had a late reaction on a ground ball that went for a hit to open the floodgates in the third.

Once those floodgates were open the deluge was hard to contain. Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story, and Ian Desmond jumped all over Jason Vargas with back-to-back-to-back home runs. Vargas would proceed to get only one out in the inning before being replaced by Hansel Robles. Robles’s problems continued immediately when Noel Cuevas smoked a double to left and pitcher German Marquez singled to add to the Rockies’ lead.

Robles did manage to weave through the rest of the inning despite loading the bases with one out, but Carlos Gonzalez took him deep an inning later to add to the Rockies’ total.

The Mets’ first attempt at comeback came in the fifth with a RBI single by Cabrera and a sacrifice fly by Conforto to make it 9-4. However, that was short lived when recent White Sox DFA Chris Beck was brought in. He gave up a run in the bottom of the inning but then somehow limited the damage in two innings of work. He did get some help from Gonzalez who got called for interference when he ran into Cabrera on a double play ball.

The Rockies’ bullpen has been dreadful recently and they certainly made this game interesting as well. In the seventh Jose Bautista doubled home Kevin Plawecki to make it 10-5 but with the bases loaded Michael Conforto struck out, and despite a wild pitch to make it 10-6, Todd Frazier then grounded out to end the threat.

The next threat came in the ninth when Jose Reyes and Amed Rosario both reached base to start the inning. Two ground outs would eventually bring home both runners to make it 10-8, but once both runners were home the rally was over and Conforto again struck out to end the game.

The pitching star for the Mets on the night was the newly-recalled Tim Peterson. He pitched two clean innings and struck out three which was a welcome breath of fresh air after the performances the others put forth.

The pitching was certainly the culprit but the offense did have its chances to come back and just could not come up with the big hit. Still after the barrage they were dealt making it close was a tiny victory in and of itself.

After Jacob deGrom’s masterpiece in the first game this was a more Coors-like game. There are still two more games left in the series where the dreadful Rockies bullpen will meet the hapless Mets offense. Who will come out victorious?

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Win Probability Added

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What’s WPA?

Big winners: None
Big losers: Jason Vargas -36.1%, Todd Frazier -12.7%
Teh aw3s0mest play: Kevin Plawecki single in second
Teh sux0rest play: Nolan Arenado home run in third
Total pitcher WPA: -42.2%
Total batter WPA: -7.9%
GWRBI!: Carlos Gonzalez