PITTSBURGH — The Mets have started playing poorly at a particularly unfortunate time.
With an 8-2 loss to the Pirates on Tuesday, they have dropped three in a row — all against last-place teams — to match their longest losing streak of the season. Their lead in the NL East was down to a half-game, with second-place Atlanta threatening to pull into a tie if it won its late game in Oakland.
This time, again, nothing went well for the Mets, including that which is under their control (hitting, pitching) and that which isn’t (potential injuries).
Starling Marte exited in the bottom of the second after getting hit on the right hand — by a 96-mph fastball from righthander Mitch Keller — in the top of the first. He was in obvious pain upon getting plunked but remained in the game, temporarily, after manager Buck Showalter and an athletic trainer checked on him.
The Mets (85-51) said Marte would get medical imaging done but didn’t offer further details.
Facing the lowest-scoring offense in the National League, Taijuan Walker gave up four runs in five innings, a continuation of his recent issues. His ERA since the All-Star break is up to 6.25. Before that, he had a 2.55 mark.
As drastic as that is, those figures are eerily similar to what Walker did last year: 2.66 ERA in the first half, 7.13 ERA in the second half.
Walker’s trouble began in the second inning, when Kevin Newman beat out a ground ball to third baseman Eduardo Escobar for a single, then came around on Michael Chavis’ sacrifice fly. Rodolfo Castro swatted a two-run home run — off the rightfield foul pole — in the third. Pittsburgh (50-84) added another run in the fifth when its top-of-the-order duo of Oneil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds doubled and singled, respectively.
Walker finished having allowed six hits plus two walks (to three strikeouts). He retired the side in order once in five tries.
Keller, meanwhile, navigated lots of busyness on the basepaths — five hits, two walks and the hit batsman in Marte — to survive six scoreless innings and lower his ERA to 4.22. It was the first time that that Keller, a regular member of the Pirates rotation, made it through an outing without allowing a run in one year and four days.
Every inning featured one Met or another coming up short. Pete Alonso, batting with two on and one out in the first, grounded into a double play. James McCann flied out to strand another pair of runners in the second. Alonso, batting again with two on and one out, grounded into another double play in the third. Eduardo Escobar popped out to leave Mark Canha on in the fourth. Francisco Lindor did the honors in the fifth, lining out to center to leave McCann (leadoff single).
Keller set the Mets down in order — for the first and only time — in the sixth.
Brandon Nimmo got the Mets to within two runs with a two-run homer in the seventh. But Bryce Montes de Oca and Tommy Hunter combined to give up four runs in the bottom of the eighth, solidifying a blowout.
