We've reached the "Team Meeting" portion of the season as Mets drop another stinger in Pittsburgh

Pirates 9 Mets 2 (PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA)

Mets record: 48-36

Mets streak: Lost 2

WP - Braxton Ashcraft (2-0)

LP - Paul Blackburn (0-3)

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.

Considering that no one Pirate was head and shoulders above the rest today, we're going to invite Isiah Kiner-Falefa to join his second cousin twice removed in the studio. His play in the 4th was not only our turning point (more on that below), but was the singular moment that encapsulates the latest stumble in this horrible stretch (stench?) the Mets are in.

Need to Know

• The Mets have now lost 12 out of their last 15, and held a team meeting after the game.

• The Mets were 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position, and left 9 runners on base in the game.

• The game was delayed for an hour and 29 minutes in the second inning due to rain

• The Mets brought Paul Blackburn back into the game after the delay, and he was promptly pulled after giving up five straight hits. His final ledger: three runs on six hits and two strikeouts in an inning plus.

• After Blackburn was taken out, Jose Butto, Brandon Waddell and Reed Garrett pitched six scoreless innings to keep the Mets close until the 8th.

• Carlos Mendoza was ejected in the 4th inning arguing balls and strikes with home plate ump Roberto Ortiz.

• The Pirates scored six runs in the 8th inning to put it away. They have scored 18 runs in their last two games against the Mets.

Turning Point

So here's the play that has epitomized the fortunes of both teams this series (and got IKF into our virtual studio.) With Brett Baty on second after a leadoff double, Luis Torrens hit a topper to third that got behind Ke'Bryan Hayes. Now, 9,999 times out of 10,000, that's a hit.

This, was number 10,000:

If this has happened in a playoff game, it gets talked about as one of the signature plays in playoff baseball history. As it was, it turned a first and third nobody out situation with the top of the order coming up into a more docile runner on first and one out. Maybe the Mets still don't capitalize (and the way they've been going, that's not a stretch, but more on that later.) But this play stuck a stake in the Mets' hearts, and they never recovered.

Three Keys

When You Roll Wet Dice ...

The first turning point was actually the rain delay. Paul Blackburn pitched a good first inning before the rains came in the second. (The Pirates starting the game on time when everybody knew that the rains at least had a chance to come is another conversation for another time.) At that point, I was thinking what a shame it would be that Blackburn couldn't build on that because he was surely going to be pulled after an 89 minute delay.

But Carlos Mendoza made a decision that is, shall we say, uncommon. He brought Blackburn back into the game to try to get through some innings and save the bullpen. Suffice to say, it didn't go well.

Blackburn faced five hitters, got none of them out. And say what you want about Blackburn's performance this season ... it hasn't been good. But there's a reason why starters don't come back after long delays, and that was it. Blackburn was not put in a great position for success today, no matter what you think of him overall.

But what I've always appreciated about Mendoza's managerial tenure is that he'll always give you an honest and reasoned answer about his decisions. You may not agree with them (and I'm not sure I agree with this one), but at least he has a reason and he's consistent with those reasons.

In addition to what he said above, I think that this is a butterfly effect of David Peterson's short outing on Friday. I think if Peterson goes 6 or 7 good innings, then today's decision is different, because then you would at least have Blade Tidwell in your holster to use in this situation. But he was burned, so Mendoza went unconventional. I don't think it was the right call, but at least he's not flying by the seat of his pants like other managers have done.

***

And just because I want to discuss Mendoza's ejection today, I know the narrative is that he wanted to fire up his team. Bull. He wanted to fire off a rocket towards Roberto Ortiz's posterior.

On a 3-0 count to Mark Vientos in the 3rd, look at pitch four, called a strike:

At that point I'm thinking that if this is what we're going to do here, the Mets should just forfeit. (As an aside, this doesn't absolve Vientos' questionable decision to swing at pitch five.)

Then I present to you the first pitch to Adam Frazier in the 4th:

If I was the manager of a team on a 11-3 stretch instead of a 3-11 stretch, I still get run, because Ortiz's inconsistency was awful. So you know that Mendoza is going to get his money's worth here, deservedly so.

This will, of course, be framed as part of the frustration of the team and the frustration of the manager, and I'm sure that was a small part of it, especially with the news that the Mets held a team meeting after the game. But let's not overblow it, please. This was horrible and inconsistent umpiring that can't happen in the major leagues.

Chances, Chances, Chances

Of course, none of the things in the first key matter had it not been for the second key which is: this team needs to perform offensively and with runners in scoring position.

They had chances after the rain delay, but Vientos struck out with two runners on in the second (in the first at-bat after the delay), and Tyrone Taylor grounded out hard right to the second baseman with two runners on in the third. For this lineup to struggle this much against a team that had to piece together their own bullpen for 7 and 1/3 innings just seems unfathomable. Yet it's happened more often than you would think possible. Part of it is the struggles of the bottom of the order. Part of it is Francisco Lindor cooling off. You'd think they'd find a stretch where they would put it all together from top to bottom. It could still happen, but at 3-12 over their last 15, it needs to happen soon.

Brazobusted

The Mets bullpen also did a great job after Blackburn gave up the lead. Jose Butto allowed one of Blackburn's inherited runners to score on a sac fly, but he continued his renaissance with two scoreless innings. Brandon Waddell was Herculean with three scoreless innings (and Mendoza was effusive in his praise for Waddell after the game), and Reed Garrett pitched a clean 7th. This blowout was a 3-2 game in the 8th.

But Huascar Brazoban, who has been an important part of the bullpen's success this season, lost the plate after coming in to pitch the 8th, going 1B, K, BB, BB, 1B to turn a 3-2 nailbiter into a 4-2 game that all of a sudden felt like 40-2. Colin Poche came in and wasn't much better, and the Real Feel score of 40-2 almost because the actual score. (9-2 was the actual score, and was bad enough.)

Brazoban needs to find himself for his own sake and for the sake of the team. He was a big part of the Mets lapping the field early in the season. But if he can't get it together, then no doubt that David Stearns will find someone else who will.