Megill hit with another big Rays inning as Tampa makes it two straight to clinch series over Mets

Rays 8 Mets 4 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY)

Mets record: 45-26

Mets streak: Lost 2

WP - Drew Rasmussen (6-4)

LP - Tylor Megill (5-5)

Seat on the Korner:

We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.

Yandy Diaz came into the game as a .500 hitter against the Mets (13-for-26). He continued his dominance to the point where if he was ever traded to the Braves we would start calling him "Chipper". Diaz would wind up with two hits and two RBI in the Rays' second straight win over the Mets to clinch the series.

Need to Know

• The Rays hammered Tylor Megill for six runs in 3 and 2/3's innings. Megill gave up six runs (three earned) on seven hits and two walks while striking out five. It's worth noting that three runs were unearned due to Megill's own error in the 4th.

• Four of the Rays' eight runs were unearned, as an error by Jose Castillo helped another Tampa run to come across in the 5th.

• Mets pitchers as a whole gave up 12 hits and 3 walks to Tampa Bay.

• Five Rays had two hits each ... Jonathan Lowe, Brandon Lowe, Diaz, Matt Thaiss, and Taylor Walls.

• The best Mets performances of the day came after the outcome was no longer in doubt: Jose Butto pitched two scoreless innings striking out three, Ryne Stanek pitched a clean inning with two strikeouts, and recent addition Justin Garza gave up one hit in the 9th but otherwise pitched clean.

• The Mets last lost consecutive home games on April 30th and May 1st against Arizona. The Mets last lost consecutive games overall from May 18th through the 20th when they lost three straight to the Yankees and Red Sox.

Turning Point

It was really the entirety of the top of the fourth, just after the Mets scored two in the third to take the lead and I was anticipating putting Brett Baty's home run as the turning point. But then Junior Caminero blasted a letter high sinker (never a good sign when a sinker is letter high) through the remaining humidity to tie the game.

Three Keys

Location, Location, Etc.

Megill ran into some bad luck on soft contact on his low pitches. But that's not why he lost. He lost because he lost location on his fastball up high.

The Josh Lowe single above which drove in the first run was on an 0-2 fastball. If that ball is shoulder high, it's a strikeout or a pop up. That pitch was full on chocolate chocolate chip cookie. The next batter, Brandon Lowe, hit a 2-2 fastball fastball for a base hit. It didn't wind up hurting them, but it was another two strike peanut butter cookie.

The Caminero home run that's our turning point was a sinker that ran instead of sink, and it was on the same plane. Letter high, grandstand high. The rest of that inning featured dinks, dunks, and then a brutal error that Megill made on a sac bunt that made it 3-2.

Then after a bloop hit made it 4-2, Megill threw a slider to Diaz that was called a slider but it had the consistency of a meatball slider.

Belt high, no bite, run scores. The story of Tylor's day. Throw in a run scoring wild pitch and a walk and you have a bow on a horrible outing by Megill.

There Were Opportunities

After the Rays made it 7-2 in the fifth, the Mets had their chances. With two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the 5th, Ronny Mauricio smacked one out to right for his second home run of the year.

Then the Mets rallied for another run on a Brandon Nimmo single.

But Juan Soto would fly out to the warning track to end that threat.

In the 7th with the score 8-4, the Mets had the tying run on deck with two runners on first and third. But Kevin Cash brought in Garrett Cleavinger to face Brandon Nimmo, and got him to ground out to harmlessly end that inning. Then in the 8th, a Kameron Misner misplay with two outs put runners on first and third with Brett Baty up. Earlier in the game, Baty had slammed a home run. But Baty also grounded out to second to end that threat.

To The Walls

Because I have to come up with a third key, you could have definitely made a case for Taylor Walls for the seat so I want to give him some props. He started the Rays first rally in the third with a double down the left field line. He then drove in a run on the sac bunt that Megill threw away, and then for good measure doubled home a run in the fifth with a double to make it 7-2 and help put the game out of reach.

That's 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI. Not a bad day from the 9 spot as Walls was all over the game.