Steven Matz took the mound in the Mets’ series opener against Pittsburgh Friday evening, poised to pick up where he left off after throwing a shutout against them on Saturday.

Early on, things were going just as they went in Matz’s start on Saturday, which marked the first shutout of his career and likely the best start of his career. Matz cruised through three more scoreless innings on Friday, allowing just a one-out single in the second to Jose Osuna.

His fastball, which was sitting 93 to 95 miles per hour, was effective early on, but the Pirates hitters were suddenly on it in the fourth. After walking the first hitter, Matz gave up back-to-back singles to Starling Marte and Josh Bell, both on fastballs, cutting the Mets’ lead at the time to 3-1.

Despite finally cracking after 12 consecutive scoreless innings against the Pirates, Matz could not tame the barrage that had transpired. Osuna singled in another run on a changeup, and Melky Cabrera smacked a two-run double off Matz’s slider that gave the Pirates a 4-3 lead. It was the fourth hit in a row for the Pirates that inning as the first five men all reached base.

Matz finally got an out that inning on a groundout by Adam Frazier that advanced Cabrera to third, but Matz couldn’t even limit the damage there as Elias Diaz singled in another run on a curveball.

Matz was mixing his pitches to try and find a solution to this onslaught, but in that inning the Pirates were on top of everything and no matter what Matz did, seemingly nothing could help him weasel out of that situation.

After the pitcher Trevor Williams advanced Diaz to second on a sac bunt for the second out, Mickey Callaway decided he had seen enough and pulled the plug on Matz.

His final line ended up being five runs allowed on six hits and one walk, with four strikeouts over 3.2 innings. An outing that started off so promising snowballed into disaster as Matz failed to repeat his standout performance from less than a week prior.

“In that situation, it all snowballed so fast,” Matz admitted after the game. “I was out of the game I was like, ‘I can’t believe I’m out of this game.’ Especially with how I went through the first time of the lineup.”

Matz’s performance was certainly a disappointment, as it failed to live up to his previous domination of the Pirates, and ended a brief little run of success for the left-hander. It was his first pour outing since allowing seven runs on June 24, and the fourth time this season he has allowed five earned runs or more.

His next start will likely come sometime mid-week at home against the Marlins.