Game Recap June 25: Yikes

The score of the game may have been 6-4, but it really didn’t feel all that close.

Unfortunately for Seth Lugo, who had been superb previous to his last two starts, he could not will his team to victory despite allowing one earned run.

Sure-handed middle infielder – yes, that’s right, I said middle infielder – Luis Guillorme got the start at third base tonight, a position he has played for most of the 2018 MLB season. However, Guillorme, who grades as a 70 shortstop and 75 second baseman, has played just three career games in the minor leagues at the hot corner. So of course, his two errors in the game were what seemed like the difference in this loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In fact, the whole defensive alignment for the Mets is plain bad: Guillorme and Michael Conforto were the only above average defenders in the lineup tonight.

Now, as I said before, the two-run difference does not tell the story of this contest.

Tyler Bashlor made his Major League debut and surrendered two runs in two innings, one being a home run to Josh Bell. Bashlor didn’t look all that impressive throwing 15 balls out of his 36 pitches, but there is certainly potential with the hard-throwing righty.

By the sixth inning, the Pirates were ahead 5-0.

Jameson Taillon mostly stifled the Mets, and after getting pulled in a shaky seventh inning, 6’8″ flamethrower Tyler Glasnow promptly served up a 3-run home run to Wilmer Flores to bring the score to 5-4. Unfortunately for New York, the lefty-righty-lefty Pirate relief tandem of Steven Brault, Kyle Crick and Felipe Vazquez curtailed any effort to even the score late in the game.

Eventually, Robert “Ambiguous Role in Mets’ Bullpen” Gsellman’s struggles continued in the ninth, as he allowed a run to score on a sac fly bringing the score to 6-4.

The aforementioned and newly name-changed Vazquez was able to the close the Mets down with ease and strike out the side bringing Mickey Callaway’s squad to an abysmal 31-45 record.

Since their 11-1 start, the New York Mets are 20-44 and have lost seven in a row.

Yikes.

Photo credit: Brad Penner – USA Today Sports