Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Marcus Stroman took the mound for the Mets on Friday night as they opened the second half of their season at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. After a terrific start to the season, Stroman has had three straight underwhelming starts. Stroman’s last outing was also against the Pirates, as he allowed three runs over five innings in a loss. He looked to get back on track in his second straight meeting with the Pirates.

Stroman’s night began with immediate help from his defense. Adam Frazier hit a hard line drive to the right of second base, but Francisco Lindor was positioned just close enough to make a diving catch to take away a hit. Ke’Bryan Hayes followed with a soft ground ball back to the Mets’ Gold Glove caliber pitcher for the second out. Bryan Reynolds lined a single up the middle to give the Pirates their first baserunner of the night, but Ben Gamel flew out to left field to retire the side in the first.

In the second, Stroman ran into trouble. John Nogowski and Wilmer Difo led off the inning with hard hit singles. After Jacob Stallings hit a weak line out to Lindor, Kevin Newman blooped a single into right field to load the bases. After a 39 minute rain delay, Stroman retook the mound and struck out Chad Kuhl for the second out of the inning. Frazier followed with an inside-out single to left to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead. After an infield single by Hayes that hit off his glove, Stroman struck out Reynolds to strand the bases loaded.

Gamel struck out swinging at a cutter to lead off the third inning. Nogowski followed with a ground out to second base before Difo flew out to left to retire the side in order. It would be Stroman’s only 1-2-3 inning of the night.

Stroman allowed a single to Stallings to begin the fourth inning, but did not allow the Pirates to do anything with it. A Newman line out and a Kuhl sacrifice bunt brought Frazier up in another two-out RBI situation. Stroman was able to get him to fly out to left this time to strand Stallings at second base.

In the fifth, Hayes grounded out to lead off the inning. Reynolds reached first after replay review showed Stroman’s back-foot slider hit him on the toe. Gamel bunted towards third base and Stroman made a play on the ball, but his throw to first was wild and got away from Pete Alonso. Fortunately for Stroman and the Mets, Gamel went halfway to second base then decided to go back to first before being caught in a rundown and tagged out. Nogowski lined out to Alonso at first to end the inning and Stroman’s night. After the line out, Stroman and Nogowski began to yell at each other which led to the benches clearing.

Stroman’s final line: 5 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K.

While Stroman definitely did not bring his ‘A’ game on Friday night, he was able to prevent the Pirates from scoring even though they had plenty of runners on base. Unfortunately for him and the Mets, the two runs scored in the second inning were all the Pirates would need thanks to the Mets offensive struggles.

“I just thought I battled,” Stroman said. “I definitely wasn’t sharp. But after letting those two runs up, my priority was to go five or six innings and keep my team in the game, and I thought I did an okay job. Not my best, but something to get going and build off of in the second half.”

As the Mets search for rotation help leading up to the trade deadline, they are going to need Stroman to build off of Friday’s start and get back to being the pitcher he has been throughout most of this season. His ability to work out of early trouble on Friday despite clearly not having his best stuff at any point is an encouraging sign that he could be on his way to reaching that level again.  Stroman’s exceptional start to the season is a key reason why the Mets are in first place despite all the injuries they have dealt with.

For the Mets to hold on to their lead in the division over these final three months of the season, they will need Stroman to resemble the pitcher he was over the first three months of the season.