Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

When Francisco Lindor bobbled what would have been an easy double play to get through a clean third inning, a team like the 2022 Mets might have rebounded and put up a clean inning anyway. Not the 2023 Mets. What resulted was a five-run inning, highlighted by multiple defensive blunders, which led the way for an embarrassing 14-7 defeat in the first game of a three-game series against the Pirates.

Rich Hill got the start for Pittsburgh, another of a handful of former Met pitchers recently tasked with facing their former team. Among those other pitchers were Marcus Stroman and Chris Bassitt who dominated the Mets for a combined two runs in 15 2/3 innings. Hill was certainly hoping to do the same and hand the Mets their seventh straight loss.

Hill struggled early in the game, as a Mark Vientos RBI single and a Francisco Lindor solo home run put two runs up against him in the first three innings. He settled in, however, and shut down the Mets for the next four innings that he pitched. Throwing 119 pitches through seven innings, he gave up seven hits and two walks while also striking out six batters.

For the Mets it was Tylor Megill who took the mound. His last outing against the Blue Jays was a step in the right direction, as he gave up just one run in 5 1/3 innings after two poor starts in a row. With the bullpen taxed following the high-scoring series in Atlanta, Megill had the massive responsibility and added pressure of trying to pitch deep into the game, something he has struggled with throughout his career.

Although he didn’t have his best stuff and would not have gone deep into the game regardless, it was mostly poor defense that did Megill in. He gave up an early two-run ground-rule double off the bat of Austin Hedges in the second inning, which was his own doing, but in the third, Lindor’s blunder on a sure double play allowed the inning to continue which resulted in five runs coming across the plate. Another error, this time by Eduardo Escobar, contributed to the nightmare inning.

Lindor mentioned before the game, “Guys have to step up – including myself.” Lindor had been stepping up more at the plate, with his home run earlier in the game giving him a hit in each of his last five games, but his error that led to a massive inning and Megill exiting the game much earlier than anticipated is the type of mistake that can easily be avoided and the type of mistake that has defined the Mets’ season up to this point.

After the game, Lindor owned his mistake: “Today’s on me. That play right there… Mental mistakes like that cannot happen.”

Ultimately, Megill couldn’t escape the fourth inning. A combination of poor pitching and poor defense knocked him out after 79 pitches and just 3 2/3 innings. In total, he gave up eight hits, three walks, and seven earned runs, striking out just one. With the performance, his ERA on the year ballooned from 4.40 to 5.14.

“Consistency, to say the least,” is what Megill replied when asked after the game what he’s most frustrated with. On why he’s lacked consistency: “Walks, hits, and getting taken out of the game. As simple as that.”

The Mets turned to Zach Muckenhirn, who was just called up earlier today, and he immediately got hit hard. When he finally put the fourth inning to bed, the Pirates had already built up a mammoth 10-2 lead.

While it may have been difficult, the Mets could have attempted a large, late-inning comeback, the type of game which defined their magical 2022 season. At the very least, they could have fought offensively to put some more runs on the board even if a win was out of reach. Nevertheless, the offense fell dormant as if to end the game as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, the Pirates continued adding on as they put up two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to make it 12-2. The Mets left Muckenhirn in the game simply to eat up innings, eventually relieving him for Tommy Hunter after soaking up 2 1/3 innings, giving up six hits and three earned runs. Two more runs were added in the eighth after Hunter gave up back-to-back homers, also allowing Ke’Bryan Hayes to pick up his fifth hit of the night in the process.

The Mets offense finally woke up again in the ninth as they plated five runs. Francisco Álvarez and Luis Guillorme drove in one run each while the other three runs in the inning were scored via two separate errors, although the errors resulted due to hot shots off the bats of Vientos and Pham. Of course, the rally in the final inning was too little too late and did nothing to cover up the embarrassment of giving up 14 runs and losing the team’s seventh game in a row.

When asked after the game if there was any hangover effect from Atlanta, Buck Showalter replied, “Looked like it. Didn’t pitch well, that usually does a lot of it.”

Player Focus

Mark Vientos was a rare bright spot in the game, as he went 1-for-3 with an RBI single and a walk. A batted ball in the ninth inning plated a run, but it was ruled an error and thus he was not given an RBI despite hitting the ball hard. Vientos is set to play more with Alonso expected to miss at least a few weeks and maybe up to a month, and the hope is that consistent playing time will get his bat going.

Stat of the Game

For just the third time in Mets history, the team has allowed 13 runs in consecutive games, also doing so in 2003 and 2017. While the offense is far from perfect, there have been too many games this season where the pitching has simply given the team no chance to win and tonight was another one of those nights.

On Deck

The series with the Pirates continues Saturday with the game scheduled for 4:05 p.m. ET. Kodai Senga gets the start for New York, coming off a rough outing in which he allowed nine baserunners (four hits, five walks) and three runs in just 2 2/3 innings in his last start. Pittsburgh will send out Johan Oviedo who gave up two earned runs in seven innings in his last start. The game will be broadcast on SNY.