Well, this once was a close game, but it ended up being an eventful 9-2 loss to the Pirates, one that started exactly 4:25 from the time I am typing this sentence.
In fact, the Mets actually led this game, funny as that seems now. Juan Soto put them ahead with an RBI single following a Francisco Lindor double. The bottom of the first inning went without a hitch for Paul Blackburn.
Then, the skies opened up. An hour and a half long rain delay put the Mets in neutral, as they lost the lead upon the resumption of the game and never recovered it.
DETOUR ALERT!: Welcome to the first annual rain delay review! This delay was actually quite well done by the Pirates and the umpires, though it had a weird little wrinkle at the end. They called the game with Mark Vientos up to bat, giving him a nice long hour and a half long plate appearance, right before it starting to rain pretty heavily. The SNY cameras showed some good hustle from the grounds crew, who are heroes in each and every stadium across the league, and they got the tarp out rather quickly. Apparently they showed Amazin’ Finishes 2007 (which could be considered a threat by some considering how that year ended), but truth be told I did not watch it and played a few matches of Rematch instead. A few friends of mine who were (unfortunately) at the game said they even had leaf blowers to dry the grass quicker before resuming play, which is a nice touch. The only weird thing was it was still raining a bit when they resumed play but, these things happen. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
If you ever wondered why. exactly, most teams pull their starters after a rain delay, look no further than this game — Blackburn retook the mound in the bottom of the second inning and was as terrible as one would expect any starter to be when they were forced to sit for over an hour. He gave up three straight hits to give up the lead, a sacrifice fly to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead, and another single to load the bases. José Buttó came in and did what he could, getting out of the inning with only one more run surrendered, giving the Pirates a 3-1 lead going into the third.
For roughly 99% of people reading this, the rest of this game was a slog at best and another nightmare in a two week stretch of nightmares at worst. Carlos Mendoza got ejected arguing balls and strikes, and honestly probably to try and light a fire underneath the offense. Speaking of the offense, their performance was apropos of this year’s team as a whole, as they were a dreadful 2-8 with runners in scoring position, leaving ten Mets on base. This has been a three month problem, and something they really do need to figure out going forward, despite their consistent place at or near the top of the division. Brandon Nimmo had the second hit with runners in scoring position (with Soto in the first inning being the first), driving in Pete Alonso with a single, making it 3-2 in the fifth.
After that, the offense went silent. They only had three base runners from the sixth inning on, getting shut down by Dennis Santana, Caleb Ferguson, and David Bednar (the trio followed a solid performance out of the pen for Braxton Ashcraft, who bent but did not break after the rain delay).
The bottom of the eighth inning was where disaster struck, and the Mets sleep paralysis demon showed up at the foot of their bed (if you are wondering, it is in the shape of an L and has googly eyes with an angry eyebrow over them. They HATE to see that L coming). Huascar Brazobán continued his slump, surrendering four runs (two of them scored after he exited the game). He loaded the bases with a combination of hits and walks, the latter being especially problematic for Brazobán in this recent stretch. Recently selected Colin Poche came to try and keep it a game and did not, allowing the last two runs on Brazobán’s ledger to score, and two of his own. In the blink of an eye it was 9-2 Pirates, and the Mets were well on their way to losing their 12th game in the last 15 games, as well as a team meeting postgame according to basically every beat writer on Twitter.
Brandon Waddell deserves his flowers, here, before we sign off on this recap. Following José Buttó’s strong two inning performance, he threw three innings of one hit ball out of the pen, striking out three, walking none, and keeping the Mets in the game. While it will end up going unremembered because of the eventual loss, he was a bright spot and he looks like a Major League arm, which is always a nice little silver lining.
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Box scores
Win Probability Added
Big Mets winner: Brandon Waddell, +13.4% WPA
Big Mets loser: Paul Blackburn, -29.7% WPA
Mets pitchers: -13.4% WPA
Mets hitters: -36.6% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Brandon Nimmo’s RBI single, +9.5% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Spencer Horwitz second inning single, -9.1% WPA