The New York Mets were defeated by the Tampa Bay Rays by a score of 2-1 (Box Score).

After lasting just two innings in his previous start due to hamstring spasms, NL Cy Young candidate Jacob deGrom returned to the mound for the Amazins’ and was impressive.

DeGrom had a much better outing going seven innings while allowing two-runs, on four hits, matching his career high with 14 strikeouts.

For the third consecutive game, the Mets had a starter strikeout at least 10 hitters for the first time in franchise history. DeGrom joined franchise greats Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden as the only pitchers in Mets history to record multiple starts with 14 strikeouts in a season.

Unfortunately, his offense failed him.

The Rays went with the opener method using six relief pitchers, who combined to allow four hits, on one-run as they shut down the Mets’ bats.

With six games left to go, the Mets fell to 24-30 on the season and 3.5 back of the second wild card spot.

Pitching

DeGrom got off to a fast start striking out the side in an easy top of the first.

In the top of the second, deGrom issued a rare leadoff walk and surrendered a double to Joey Wendle to setup second-and-third with no-outs.

This led to a sac-fly by Met killer Manuel Margot to plate the game’s first run. deGrom came back to strikeout Kevin Kiermaier, but J.D. Davis dropped a throw from Wilson Ramos, which would’ve been an inning ending strike ‘em out, ‘em out.

DeGrom then walked Brett Phillips but struck out Zunino to finally get out of a 28-pitch inning.

The right-hander had a much better showing in the third, striking out the side for the second time in three innings.

In the top of the fourth, Nate Lowe led off with a home run to extend the Rays’ lead to 2-0. DeGrom then allowed a single to Wendle, who was later caught stealing by Ramos for the inning’s first-out.

A fly-out from Margot, and a strikeout of Kiermaier got him out of the inning, but the Rays’ added a run to their lead on the Lowe homer.

Dominic Smith made a beautiful diving stop to get Phillips to start the top of the fifth. deGrom retired the next two hitters, while picking up his 10th strikeout of the night.

For the third consecutive game, the Mets’ had a starting pitcher strikeout at least 10 batters for the first time in franchise history.

Brandon Lowe led off the top of the sixth with a leadoff double. Following a strikeout, a passed ball by Ramos allowed Lowe to advance to third with one-out. deGrom picked up his 12th strikeout of the game before getting Wendle to groundout to get out of the inning unscathed.

 DeGrom came back out to pitch a scoreless seventh picking up two strikeouts to match his career high at 14 to end his outing.

Miguel Castro came on to pitch the eighth inning and allowed a one-out single and a stolen base. After striking out the next batter he faced, Castro issued a walk to setup first-and-second with two-outs for Lowe. Luckily, he fought back to strikeout Lowe keeping the game within a run.

Edwin Diaz entered in the top of the ninth with his team down 2-1 and worked around a two-out walk for a scoreless inning.

Offense

The Mets were without their best hitter in Michael Conforto on Monday night who is day-to-day with hamstring tightness.

Right-hander Pete Fairbanks was the first man up in the Rays’ opener model and issued a leadoff walk to Brandon Nimmo to start his night. After Fairbanks retired the next two batters, catcher Mike Zunino cut down Nimmo trying to steal second to end the inning.

With the Mets trailing 1-0, Fairbanks set down the first two hitters in order before Kevin Cash went to his bullpen for side-arm thrower Ryan Thompson.

Thompson struck out Pete Alonso on five pitches to cap off a 1-2-3 inning.

Staying on for the bottom of the third, Thompson set down the first two batters he faced, but allowed a single to Ramos. As a result, Cash brought in lefty Josh Fleming, who finished off another scoreless inning.

Swinging at the first pitch of the bottom of the fourth, Jeff McNeil led off with a single off Fleming. But the Mets left him stranded as they were unable to scratch across another base runner.

In the bottom of the fifth, Fleming issued a two-out walk to Guillermo Heredia and a single to Ramos (his second of the night) to setup first-and-second for Nimmo.

Fleming hit Nimmo to load the bases for McNeil, who came through with an infield single to put the Mets on the board with their first and only run of the game.

The struggling Davis came to the plate with a chance to tie it or give his team the lead, but he lined out to right to end the threat.

Diego Castillo came on to replace Fleming with two-outs and nobody on in the bottom of the sixth. Castillo threw one pitch and induced a groundout of Alonso to end the inning.

Left-hander Ryan Sherriff pitched the eighth inning and issued a two-out walk to Davis. This brought Smith to the plate, who flied out to left to end the threat.

Coming to bat in the bottom of the ninth trailing by a run, Nick Anderson got into an 11-pitch battle with Robinson Cano, who flied out to deep center for the first out.

Anderson struck out Alonso and got Gimenez to pop-out to lockdown the save for the Rays, who improved their magic number to one game to clinch the AL East.

On Deck

Seth Lugo (2-3, 4.34 ERA) will try to bounce back after a rough start in Philadelphia as he faces off against former AL Cy Young winner Blake Snell (4-1, 3.05 ERA) in the second game of this series.

First pitch is set to be delivered at 7:10 pm EST. and the game can be seen on SNY and Fox Sports Sun.