Mets Blow Five-Run Lead To Pirates; First Half Ends On Sour Note

Although the Mets endured an impressive first half with a 47-40 record and a nine-week first-place lead in the NL East, their final game before the All-Star break ended in bittersweet fashion.

Despite jumping out in front against the Pirates early behind a big five-run first inning, Pittsburgh kept chipping away until the deficit was cut down to one-run.

Following a much-needed scoreless inning in the seventh, manager Luis Rojas asked the struggling Miguel Castro to come back out in the eighth. But this move ultimately backfired, as Castro was forced to exit with runners on the corners and one out.

Closer Edwin Diaz then came on in relief to try to get a five out save, and at first, the right-hander was able to escape a bases loaded jam with two big strikeouts to get out of the eighth unscathed.

But in the ninth inning with the Pirates down to their last out, Diaz fell apart to allow three-straight singles, and all of a sudden, the Pirates took a 6-5 lead.

The Mets' offense had several chances to tack on insurances runs in this contest, but they could not score for the remainder of the afternoon.

This wound up dooming them, as they went down easy in the bottom of the ninth to suffer their worst loss of the season, splitting a four-game series with the last-place Pirates.

Prior to the meltdown, Brandon Nimmo led off the bottom of the first with a double against Pirates pitcher Chase De Jong, before Francisco Lindor crushed a two-run home run to put get the Mets on the board 2-0.

Lindor goes deep #LGM pic.twitter.com/0QW68yuJ0o
— Pat Ragazzo (@ragazzoreport) July 11, 2021

But that's not all. After two more runners reached base, Michael Conforto slugged a much-needed three-run bomb to center to extend the lead to 5-0.

Conforto needed this one in the worst way #LGM pic.twitter.com/EMreoyYY5y
— Pat Ragazzo (@ragazzoreport) July 11, 2021

In his 10th major league season, left-hander Aaron Loup made his first career start on Sunday as the opener. Loup tossed two shutout innings, with two hits allowed and two strikeouts to begin the afternoon.

Right-hander Jerad Eickhoff entered after Loup, and gave the Mets 2.2 innings out of the bullpen.

The Pirates got on the board with back-to-back homers off Eickhoff in the top of the fifth to cut the deficit to 5-2. After allowing two more runners to reach base, Eickhoff's day was done, as Rojas pulled him with two outs for Jeurys Familia.

Luckily, Familia was able to get a king sized out by inducing a fly ball off the bat of All-Star center fielder Bryan Reynolds to escape the jam.

Familia came back out for the sixth and was one out away from getting through a scoreless inning, before Castro struck again with a two-run homer to make it a one run game, at 5-4.

And the rest was history, as the bats went silent and the bullpen was unable to hang on.

The Mets will now have four days off this week, before heading to Pittsburgh to kick off the second half of the season against the Pirates at PNC Park.