PITTSBURGH _ The flock of New Yorkers gathered behind the visitor's dugout at PNC Park before Saturday's game serenaded Mets manager Terry Collins, standing nearby, with a song for his 68th birthday. Collins waved and smiled. When Collins walked past the dugout, one fan, feeling his oats, piped up to inform the manager he'd lost sleep over this team, the puzzling New York Mets.
"You?" Collins asked, laughing. "You should be on my pillow!"
Collins collected a couple more gray hairs Saturday night. John Jaso roped a walk-off single to right field off left-hander Josh Edgin in the 10th inning as the Pirates evened the series with a 5-4 come-from-behind win. Jaso had tied the game in the ninth with a pinch-hit RBI single.
The Pirates (23-27) did not lead until the 10th. They had the tying run at third base in the sixth, seventh and ninth.
In the sixth, Andrew McCutchen was tagged out at the plate after inexplicably trying to score from second base on an infield single to shortstop. In the seventh, Josh Bell grounded out with runners at the corners in the seventh. In the ninth, Jaso poked a pinch-hit single to left field, scoring Jordy Mercer, who had doubled and advanced to third on a wild pitch.
In his second consecutive start batting sixth in the lineup, McCutchen doubled, homered and walked and was hit by pitch. In his other at-bat, he flied out to the warning track in center field, one of a handful of fine catches made by the Mets' Juan Lagares in the game's late innings. McCutchen drove in the first three Pirates runs but also made a costly blunder on the bases.
Right-hander Gerrit Cole was hit hard for the second consecutive start. He allowed 10 hits, including the three solo home runs, in five innings of four-run baseball. He walked one and struck out three. Cole's home-run total climbed to 12 allowed this season, already a career high.
Cole was not good, but the Pirates were still in striking distance when he departed. The deficit could have _ perhaps should have _ been worse. The Mets (20-27) stranded two runners on base in four of his five innings. In three instances, they marooned a pair of men in scoring position.
Cole used 20-plus pitches in three of five innings, and threw 98 pitches overall.
For the second day in a row, the Mets deployed a lineup with eight left-handers or switch-hitters. Cole, unlike Friday starter Chad Kuhl, has handled left-handed hitters rather well lately. While lefties hit Cole at a .329 clip in 2016, they batted .257 against him this season prior to Saturday.
New York's noise started with Jay Bruce's solo home run in the first inning. Cole was one strike from escaping with a scoreless first, but he tried back-to-back changeups _ Bruce was way out in front of one earlier in the at-bat _ and Bruce launched the full-count pitch to right field.
Travis d'Arnaud, the only right-handed hitter in the Mets lineup, offered Cole no reprieve. He singled, homered and doubled in three at-bats against the Pirates starter. After d'Arnaud's RBI single in the second, the Pirates evened the score when McCutchen worked a 2-0 count and rode a 96-mph fastball over the wall in left-center field, his seventh home run this season.
Cole seemed to have found something in the third, but only briefly. After spending 42 pitches in the first two innings, he needed just nine in a 1-2-3 third. But trouble returned. D'Arnaud, batting .190 entering the game, ripped a homer in the fourth. Lucas Duda's fifth-inning smash reached the concourse beyond the right-center field seats, a blast measuring 451 feet.
Cole continued to run multiple-run innings, but the bases were littered with runners.
The Mets' 4-2 lead nearly evaporated in the sixth. With two outs, McCutchen pulled an inside fastball past a diving third baseman for an RBI double. Francisco Cervelli hit a grounder into the hole. Shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera fielded the ball and held onto it. McCutchen, assuming Cabrera would throw to first, ran home. Cabrera threw to d'Arnaud, who tagged McCutchen for the third out.
Third-base coach Joey Cora did not send McCutchen.
The mistake was vindicated, if not forgotten, with the tying and winning rallies.
