Mets score eight runs, lose to Rockies again

Coming off one of their best stretches in the past two months, the Mets have quickly turned back into the team that looks like it’s capable of finding ways to lose games as often as possible. The offense has not been a problem over the past week or so, but aside from Jacob deGrom’s dazzling start in the series opener in Colorado, the pitching has been very, very bad.

Last night, the Mets scored three runs in the first, and after Seth Lugo gave up one in the bottom of that inning, they responded by scoring another in the top of the second. But Lugo, whose curveball wasn’t working in the high-altitude environment that is Coors Field, gave up three more runs in the bottom of the second and two more in the bottom of the third.

In total, Lugo gave up six runs on five hits with five strikeouts and two walks, throwing 72 pitches in three innings of work. Three of those runs were unearned, as Todd Frazier made a high throw to first base on what should have been a ground out to begin the bottom of the second. That alone shouldn’t have led to the three-run inning, but with the sequence that followed, Lugo’s ERA got off the hook for those runs.

That wasn’t the only defensive gaffe in the game, either. Jose Reyes, who started at shortstop over Amed Rosario for the second time in four games for some reason, had a ground ball hit right at him in the eighth for what should have been an inning-ending double play. But he booted it and got zero outs, putting Jeurys Familia in a spot where he had to work hard for a couple of strikeouts rather than return to the dugout with a relatively easy inning. Thanks to Reyes, Familia threw 24 pitches, and with the series wrapping up with a day game today, that’s not exactly ideal.

At the plate, things looked quite a bit better for the Mets. Every position player who started had at least one hit, with Dominic Smith leading the way with three in his five at-bats. Asdrubal Cabrera had a couple of hits himself and drove in two of the Mets’ eight runs, and he made a fantastic jump-and-tag play to complete a caught stealing for the team. In the process of doing that, though, his elbow bent the wrong way, leaving him in quite a bit of pain. But Cabrera was not pulled from the game, even out of precaution, and sent right back out there the following inning.

But Robert Gsellman had almost as rough an outing as Lugo, and the three runs he surrendered in his lone inning of work put the Mets behind. They did not score again after that.

It’s also worth pointing out that Jose Reyes went 1-for-3 with a double and two walks. With the Mets citing one-game performances by Reyes as justification for his seemingly increasing playing time, they’ll have one more game to point to, assuming they’re fine with ignoring the terrible play at shortstop. We’ll go out on a limb here and suggest they probably are.

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What’s WPA?

Big winners: Asdrubal Cabrera, +14.2% WPA, Dominic Smith, +12.8% WPA, Devin Mesoraco, +12.2% WPA
Big losers: Seth Lugo, -35.4% WPA, Robert Gsellman, -29.4% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Asdrubal Cabrera singles to put the Mets up 8-6 in the fifth, +18.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Ryan McMahon hits a three-run home run to put the Rockies up 9-8 in the fifth, -32.5% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -59.7% WPA
Total batter WPA: +9.7% WPA
GWRBI!: Ryan McMahon