Bartolo Colon wasn't good, but the Mets' lineup was a bit worse as the team lost its third of four games against the Pirates.
The Mets’ four-game weekend series in Pittsburgh didn’t go nearly as well as their four-game series in Miami went the weekend before. After losing the first two games against the Pirates, they managed a win on Saturday, but Bartolo Colon and a listless lineup were beaten by the Pirates on Sunday afternoon. So the Mets are now 37-45 on the season, just ahead of the last-place Phillies and seven games back of the division-leading Atlanta Braves.
The frustrating thing about the loss this afternoon was that Edinson Volquez, who entered the day with a 4.35 ERA and 4.60 FIP, started the game for the Pirates. While the Mets managed eight hits against him, they were not able to score against him in his six innings of work.
The opposite was true of the Pirates and Bartolo Colon, who had been on a streak of excellent outings for the Mets. Pittsburgh jumped out to an early lead with three runs in the bottom of the first. The first and second runs scored on an Ike Davis single, and the third scored on a Pedro Alvarez double.
In the innings in which he did not allow runs, Colon was nearly flawless. He threw a perfect second and a perfect third, keeping the game within reach for a lineup that kept getting runners on base but failing to score. In the fourth, however, he gave up two more runs in short order, as Josh Harrison doubled to begin the inning, and Pedro Alvarez hit a long home run to give the Pirates a 5-0 lead.
The Mets continued to flail through the eighth inning, though Gonzalez Germen and Dana Eveland threw a scoreless frame apiece to keep the game theoretically within reach. The Mets did manage a pair of runs in the ninth inning after a Juan Lagares single and Travis d’Arnaud double. Chris Young plated Lagares on a ground out, and after Bobby Abreu pinch hit and flew out, Ruben Tejada scored d’Arnaud with a single.
That prompted the Pirates to bring in Mark Melancon, who gave up a single to put runners on first and third and brought Curtis Granderson to the plate as the potential tying run. But Melancon got Granderson to fly out to right field, and the ballgame was over.
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* Amazin' Avenue GameThread
* Bucs Dugout GameThread
Win Probability Added
Big winners:Lucas Duda, +5.4% WPA
Big losers: Bartolo Colon, -29.8% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Lucas Duda’s leadoff double in the fourth, +5.8% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Ike Davis’s two-run single in the first, -12.1% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -29.5% WPA
Total batter WPA: -20.5% WPA
GWRBI!: Pedro Alvarez