Sunday morning’s news that Jerry Blevins would be the starting pitcher for the afternoon, understandably, had destruction written all over it. Between the poorly-handled hamstring injury that befell Jason Vargas and Robert Gsellman‘s implosion the night before, a meltdown against a surging Dodger lineup seemed imminent.

Blevins made sure to put things into perspective quickly in the first inning, as he immediately allowed solo home runs to Enrique Hernandez and Max Muncy – the game’s first two hitters. In a matter of ten pitches, the Mets were already behind by two runs. Matt Kemp followed with a lineout to left that, with a launch angle even a half-degree lower, probably would have made for a hat-trick. Blevins then retired Cody Bellinger on a sharp fly ball that Jose Bautista was fortunate enough to put away, as the fans continued to sarcastically celebrate the less-than-ideal situation.

Fast-forward to the top of the seventh inning, and the Mets had not only posted four runs, but had also limited the Dodgers to four of their own. Anthony Swarzak, to his credit, worked through the next inning and a third on a ghastly 39 pitches. That said, he missed the strike zone with 15 of them, while also missing some dire spots, resulting in a pair of second-deck home runs from Bellinger and Joc Pederson. Swarzak was charged with three runs, raising his ERA to 5.40 and dampening an unimpressive, but nonetheless sufficient effort that Blevins, Tim Peterson, and Chris Beck combined to put forward.

Following the home runs and loud outs, Blevins painted two fastballs to Yasiel Puig before finishing him off with a vintage curveball to end the first. With the Mets strapped for arms, Blevins came out for the second inning with 19 pitches already under his belt, and picked up exactly where he had left off, striking out Logan Forsythe on three pitches, inducing a Pederson popout to center, and tucking a fastball into the inside corner against Austin Barnes to end his first big league start in a 524-appearance career.

Blevins was lifted for a pinch-hitter and succeeded by Tim Peterson. Arguably the most underrated reliever this season, the Vegas product turned in a three-up, three-down third inning on just 11 pitches, striking out two of his first four batters faced. A home run by Bellinger (his first of two on the day) broke the tie in the top of the fourth, but not Peterson’s stride, as he still limited the damage to the lone run across a 31-pitch outing, which ended when Kevin Kaczmarski came in to pinch hit.

Peterson, despite the run allowed, still owns a 1.86 ERA with 11 strikeouts against two walks in 9 2/3 innings of work. The line hasn’t read as handsomely for Chris Beck, who entered the afternoon with a 6.23 ERA and 7.04 FIP, countering his 8.3 K/9 with a brutal 8.3 BB/9. Even by these measures, however, Beck held his own.

The tattooed right-hander allowed a game-tying solo home run to Enrique Hernandez (who also had two bombs), but didn’t allow another hit in a gritty two and two-thirds innings. He exited with two outs and nobody on in the seventh. While it’s hard to take many positives away from yet another discouraging loss, Beck’s efforts in particular, especially in tandem with his repertoire (which feature a high-90’s fastball and low-90’s slider), could be the start of a far more dominant run, although there’s obviously more to pick apart with the team now a shocking 13 games below .500.

In any case, the Mets’ loss today had very little to do with the injury to Jason Vargas – although the horribly butchered course of action and irritatingly neglected depth issues have now taken a turn for the laughable. While the Tampa Bay Rays have made a competitive specter out of the opener method, it’s a little harder to pull out wins with the situational lefty starting and then handing the ball off to two relievers who the front office had no intention of using this frequently by this point of the season.

Four runs on four homers aren’t all that inspiring, but considering the Dodgers failed to do much else outside of a moot two-out walk, the nearly-seven innings of relief were above and beyond, especially considering the (relative) fight that the offense had offered.