MILWAUKEE _ On full display in the Mets' 17-6 loss to the Brewers on Saturday: all of their most glaring weaknesses.
Left-hander Jason Vargas, the weakest link in the rotation, allowed five runs in three innings, blowing a pair of multirun leads. His ERA is 10.62.
Right-hander AJ Ramos, the deposed setup man who issued a bases-loaded walk to end the game Friday, allowed three runs in two-thirds of an inning. He pitched in the fifth, his earliest appearance in 374 major-league games.
And en route to allowing a season-high run and hit totals, the Mets made a number of defensive blunders, including a fielding error by shortstop Jose Reyes and a throwing error from center fielder Michael Conforto.
Everything went great for the Mets until the bottom of the first, when the Brewers answered the Mets' three runs with three of their own off Vargas. He gave up two more runs in the third _ one on a homer by Jesus Aguilar _ before being lifted.
Vargas has averaged about four innings in his five starts this year. His only competitive outing came when he posted five scoreless frames Monday against the Marlins, the lowest-scoring offense in baseball.
Chris Flexen, the Mets' long reliever who had been up for a week without pitching, appeared in his first game since May 14. He escaped a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the sixth, but coughed up seven runs (three earned) in the seventh. He had been a candidate to start the night game in Monday's doubleheader in Atlanta, but he threw 57 pitches while getting hit around.
