Mets Winning Streak Stopped, Lose to Pirates
The last time the Mets won five games in a row was in early May. They could have done it again Tuesday night, but instead they lost to the Pirates.
The Pirates jumped on Collin McHugh early. They loaded the bases with one out and Gaby Sanchez hit a little looper to center. Andres Torres charged in and it looked like he was going the make the catch on his knees but he just whiffed on it. A run came in but Torres was able to get a force out at second for the second out. Is it just me or does Torres not know how to play baseball? Anyway, Pedro Alvarez followed with a massive home run to left and suddenly it was 4-0.
The Mets got three of the runs back in the bottom of the inning. Ruben Tejada led off with a single. Justin Turner followed by launching a Wandy Rodriguez pitch into the Party City Deck to make it 4-2. David Wright then hit his 20th homer of the season to dead center field to cut the lead to 4-3. It was the first time all season the Mets have hit back-to-back home runs.
The Pirates continued to batter McHugh in the second. With runners on second and third Josh Harrison tripled to extend the lead to 6-3. After walking the next batter Terry Collins pulled McHugh from the game. Justin Hampson came on an induced a ground ball to Turner at second, but he bobbled the ball and a run scored, making it 7-3. A double play started by a nice play by Wright ended the inning.
McHugh’s final line was ugly — 1.1 innings pitched, seven runs allowed on five hits and three walks. Unfortunately, his impressive first start is looking more and more like an aberration.
Elvin Ramirez came on to pitch the fifth, and he was not good at all. He allowed a single and two walks to load the bases. Then he walked another batter to force in a run to make it an 8-3 game. Ramirez settled down and got out of the inning without further damage.
Andres Torres doubled to lead off the seventh and scored when right fielder Garrett Jones bobbled Jordany Valdespin’s single, cutting the lead to 8-4. Valdespin stole second and Tejeda walked. Pinch hitter Daniel Murphy hit what should have been an inning-ending double play, but Alvarez tried to tag Valdespin on his way to third instead of throwing to second to get the out there. Valdespin was able to avoid the tag, so Alvarez had to settle for just the out at first. Wright then picked the perfect spot to get his 1418th hit to tie Ed Kranepool atop the all time Mets list — he singled to right to drive in two runs to make it 8-6.
Jon Rauch could not keep the game within reach, allowing a two-run homer to Jones to extend the lead to 10-6.
That was the final score. Winning streak over.