PITTSBURGH — Make room for the new (unwelcome) co-inhabitants to the NL East penthouse.
After keeping the Braves in the rear view for the first 135 games this season, the Mets again lost to a last-place team, 8-2 to the Pirates on Tuesday, and hours later were hit with the sobering reality that first place was no longer their sole domain.
The Braves, who trailed the Mets by 10½ games in June and as recently as Aug. 10 were 7½ lengths behind, won 10-9 in Oakland to continue their torrid pace and claim a share of first place.
With 26 games to the finish line, it’s all square.
Other than one Brandon Nimmo swing in the seventh inning at PNC Park, the Mets were an ugly sight to behold offensively, continuing the doldrums from their series against the Nationals over the weekend.
“We’re still in good spirits,” said Taijuan Walker, who had a blister arise on his index finger after the third inning and departed after five at 80 pitches. “It’s a long season, September, teams go through these stretches and … it’s part of the game. We know what we have to do. We are a good team. We have been a good team all year.”
The latest injury concern is Starling Marte, who departed the game in the second, an inning after he was drilled in the right hand by a Mitch Keller fastball. Marte received imaging on his middle finger and will be further Wednesday evaluated.
“We might have gotten lucky, we’ll see,” manager Buck Showalter said, noting that a specialist still had to review the imaging.
Already trailing 4-2 in the eighth, the Mets sunk further into the hole when the Pirates blitzed Bryce Montes de Jan, in his second major league appearance, and Tommy Hunter for four runs. Hunter entered with two outs in the inning and surrendered a two-run blast to Oneil Cruz that reached the Allegheny River.
Showalter said he stuck with Montes de Jan for a second inning of work because Joely Rodriguez was unavailable due to neck stiffness and he wanted to avoid using Hunter, who had pitched extended duty on Sunday. Showalter also didn’t have Trevor Williams and David Peterson available.
The Mets’ offensive sluggishness included Pete Alonso hitting into two double plays and an 0-for-6 team performance with runners in scoring position. Over their last 13 games, the Mets have averaged 2.92 runs.
“Our guys are frustrated right now because they know they are capable of better,” Showalter said.
Alonso, who is 2-for-25 (.080) over his last seven games, has been the most conspicuous of the slumping Mets.
“It’s just wanting something too much — I am not ever going to criticize him for that,” Showalter said. “Pete is wanting to do everything for us, which he has pretty much done the whole season so that is why it kind of sticks out. I feel for him, because he is grinding like heck and working like you would expect Pete to work.”
After Keller blanked the Mets for six innings, Nimmo smashed a two-run homer in the seventh against Robert Stephenson that cut the Pirates’ lead to 4-2. James McCann delivered a two-out single — a second hit of the game for the offensively challenged catcher — before Nimmo went deep for homer No. 13 this season.
Walker had a second straight subpar start, allowing four earned runs on six hits and two walks over five innings. It followed a performance against the Dodgers last week in which he surrendered three earned runs over 5 ¹/₃ innings in a no-decision (the Mets lost).
In his five August starts, Walker pitched to a 6.98 ERA, which included an outing against the Braves that ended after only one inning and eight runs allowed.
Walker hung a slider in the third inning and watched Rodolfo Castro swat it off the right-field foul pole for a two-run homer that sunk the Mets in a 3-0 hole. The blast was Castro’s fourth in 11 career at-bats against the Mets.
In the fifth, Cruz scorched a double with one out and scored on Bryan Reynolds’ ensuing single. The Pirates had four hard-hit balls in the inning, including Ben Gamel’s line drive that Alonso snared for the third out.
Walker also allowed a run in the second inning on Michael Chavis’ sacrifice fly after consecutive singles by Kevin Newman and Jack Suwinski.
“My splitter was really good and the blister popped up and I just couldn’t finish it today,” Walker said. “I am definitely not making any excuses. I had the slider that I left up for the homer, but I thought for the most part I got some ground balls and weak contact.”
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