Mets Swept Away by Pirates

The Pirates completed a sweep of the Mets on Sunday, the last two games in blowout fashion.

The Mets offense continues its incompetence. They got runners to second and third with no outs in the second, but the Triple-A lineup of Anthony Recker, Darrell Ceciliani and Ruben Tejada each struck out. In fact, the Mets struck out 11 times through the first five innings and 14 times overall.

Down 1-0 in the fifth, the Mets managed to tie the score and loaded the bases with two outs. But John Mayberry — you guessed it — struck out.

Andrew McCutchen homered for the second straight day in the bottom of the fifth to give the Pirates a 3-1 lead. That ended the day for Jonathon Niese after another disappointing start.

Starling Marte put the game out of reach in the sixth with a three-run homer off of Erik Goeddel, making it 7-1.

The Mets would go on to lose 9-1. They have now lost five of their last six games, during which they have been outscored 40-11. They were outscored in this series 21-4.

The Mets are hanging onto second place, two and a half games behind the Nationals. Remember when the Mets had an 11-game winning streak and were in first place by four and a half games? Yeah, me neither.