The New York Mets were defeated by the Colorado Rockies by a score of 9-4 (Box Score).

Coming off a heart breaking loss on Sunday night, the Mets did not fair any better with their backs against the wall.

Steven Matz took the bump tonight and intially pitched well until an ugly fourth inning. Despite pitching with a three-run lead, Matz completely fell apart in the frame walking-two, giving up a two-run single to the pitcher, and then an absolute moon shot to Trevor Story.

Matz’s final line was four innings, seven earned runs on six hits, two walks, and four strikeouts. This rough outing shot his ERA up to 4.16 on the season.

Unfortunately the team lost more ground in the Wild Card race, as the Cubs and Brewers both won putting the Mets at five-games back with 12 games to go.

Pitching 

It was an easy first inning for Matz, who took the mound with an early 1-0 lead. Matz set down the top of the Rockies order on back-to-back groundouts and then finished things off by getting Nolan Arenado to popout.

After striking out the first-two batters he faced in the second, the lefty gave up a solo home run to familiar foe Ian Desmond, which evened up the score 1-1. Garrett Hampson then singled and reached second on an error from J.D. Davis. Luckily Matz was able to limit the damage by inducing an inning ending groundout.

Following McNeil’s two-run bomb, Matz once again came to the mound with a lead, but would not cough it up this time. The South paw struck out the first two hitters for the second straight frame and then got former Met Daniel Murphy to groundout to a diving Pete Alonso to end the inning.

In the bottom of the fourth, Charlie Blackmon singled with one-out for the Rockies third hit of the game. Matz then walked the next batter to put runners on first and second for Desmond.

After getting Desmond to line out to right, Hampson hit a two-out RBI blooper to plate the Rockies second-run. Matz then issued his second-walk of the inning to the next batter to load the bases.

At 31 pitches deep in the frame, Matz gave up the lead by allowing a two-run base hit to the opposing pitcher Senzatela, who snapped an 0-for-44 stretch at the plate. It would all fall apart for Matz after that, who served up a three-run shot to Trevor Story, which gave the Rockies a 7-4 lead.

Walker Lockett entered the game in relief of Matz to start the bottom of the fifth in his first ever appearance at Coors field, per Gary Cohen. Lockett worked around a one-out single to pitch a scoreless frame.

Enter Jeurys Familia in the sixth inning giving up a hit and a walk, but was able to work around it in a scoreless frame.

In his second inning of work, Familia gave up a lead-0ff single to Arenado, which caused Callaway to pull him in favor of Luis Avilan to face the lefty Blackmon (1-for-11 lifetime against Avilan).

Fortunately, this number improved to 1-for-12 in favor of Avilan, who got the hot hitting Blackmon to fly out. Avilan stayed in to face the left-handed hitting Ryan McMahon, who struck out on a check swing for the second-out (Avilan, 0.2 scoreless inning).

Callaway then brought Paul Sewald in to face the right-handed hitter Ian Desmond, who struck a single up the middle. With runners on first and third, Hampson grounded out to Alonso, who made a critical mistake not knowing, where to throw on a slow roller, which allowed the eighth-run of the game to score.

The struggling Edwin Diaz came on to pitch the eighth retiring the first two batters, which came at a cost when J.D. Davis made a remarkable leaping catch at the left field wall to rob the Rockies of extra bases but slammed his ribs hard falling to ground clearly shaken up.

Keep in mind, Davis was struck on the ribs by an Austin May 96 mph fastball on Sunday night. Luckily, he would remain in the game.

Although Davis bailed him out, Diaz’s struggles continued as he surrendered a two-out double to Nolan Arenado to extend the Rockies lead to 9-4.

Offense

The Mets offense got off to a fast start against Rockies starter Antonio Senzatela when Brandon Nimmo went “oppo-taco” for a solo shot to lead off the game. For Nimmo, it was his sixth homer of the year and second lead off “ding dong” at Coors field since last season.

After a quiet second inning, the Mets bats got going again in the top of the third when Tomas Nido led off with a single up the middle. Despite Matz being unable to get a bunt down, Jeff McNeil stepped up to the plate and hit a two-run shot (21) to put the Mets up 3-1.

Following a Robinson Cano groundout, the slumping Alonso singled up the middle with one-out. Davis then flew out to center, which brought Amed Rosario to the dish with two-outs. Rosario would ultimately come up big pulling a double to left field that scored Alonso to extend the lead to 4-1.

The Mets were only able to scratch across one-run in the frame due to the fact that the Rockies walked Nido to face Matz, who flew out to end the inning.

Coming to bat behind for the first time tonight, Nimmo sent another opposite field shot to left field to start the top of the fifth, but was unfortunately robbed by Desmond on a leaping catch at the wall. Next up, McNeil smacked a a one-out single up the middle for his second hit of the game.

The offense went down quietly as the slumping Michael Conforto struck out on a slider in the dirt and Cano grounded out to to second to end the inning.

Alonso continued to swing the bat tonight slicing a lead off double to right field for his 78th extra base hit of the season to start things off in the top of the sixth.

With one-out, Rosario grounded a chopper between the pitcher and second basemen, but was able to beat out the pitcher to first because no one was covering. Colorado challenged the call as it appeared that the pitcher tagged Rosario out, but alas the call was upheld.

This put runners on first and third with one-out, which caused Mickey Callaway to pinch hit Luis Guillorme for Lockett. The confusing part about this move was that Joe Panik was pulled back from the on-deck circle despite being 9-for-21 in his career against Senzatela.

Instead, Guillorme struck out for the second-out of the inning. Mickey then pinch hit Panik for Nido, who in turn grounded out weakly to third to end the scoring threat.

Keep in mind the hot hitting Todd Frazier and Wilson Ramos were both available off the bench tonight. This is just the latest head scratching move and yet another display of unorthodox managing by Callaway.

In the seventh, Nimmo struck out looking, McNeil lined out to center, and Conforto struck out for the second time tonight as the bats went down quietly.

Despite a leadoff walk from Cano, both Alonso and Davis struck out in back-to-back turns at the plate. Rosario then hit a grounder up the middle that the second basemen McMahon back handed in the hole tossing an off balanced throw to get Cano out at second to end the inning. SIGH.

Jed Lowrie reached base for the first time in 2019 on a leadoff walk in the top of the ninth. Rene Rivera followed that up with a bloop single to center field.

This brought Brandon Nimmo to the plate, who worked a full-count, but unfortunately struck out on a slider off the plate for the first-out. After McNeil grounded into a fielders choice, the Mets fate was sealed as Conforto lined out to left to the end the game.

Up Next

Marcus Stroman (8-13, 3.35 ERA) looks to build off a strong start last week (6.1, 1 ER) as he takes on Rockies starter Tim Melville (2-2, 5.16 ERA).

First pitch is at 8:40 p.m. E.T. and the game can be seen on SNY.