NEW YORK — The at-bat still bothered Steven Brault as he sat in the visitors' clubhouse. Brault, pitching with the score tied Tuesday night, walked Michael Conforto, a left-handed batter, to lead off the New York 10th inning.
"It's still eating at me," Brault said. More so than the single by Todd Frazier that followed or the inside fastball Brault threw to Wilmer Flores that resulted in the Pirates' 4-3 walkoff loss to the Mets at Citi Field. This wasn't his typical self-deprecation following a tough outing. Brault was seething.
Yet, he wasn't the only one responsible for the come-from-behind loss. Chad Kuhl threw two wild pitches in a two-run first inning and later exited with a right forearm injury, the Pirates committed three errors, Edgar Santana allowed the tying home run and they stranded seven runners on base in the final six innings.
As a result, they failed to win back-to-back games — which they've accomplished only twice since May 17 — and again dropped to five games below .500.
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGS, VIDEO"It was a tough one," Austin Meadows said afterward. "They got the lead early but we were able to bounce back. We thought we had it there, but they were able to have some good at-bats and we made mistakes in the field. That’s how the game goes."
The Pirates, now 37-42, dropped to a season-worst 9 1/2 games behind the first-place Brewers in the Central Division. They nearly blew a five-run lead against the Mets (32-45) one night earlier and similar mistakes caught up to them Tuesday.
This time, though, they played from behind for most of the game, as the result of Kuhl's erratic command in the first. Kuhl, pummeled for eight earned runs in his previous start, put two in scoring position with a single, a walk and two wild pitches. Flores then pulled a ball to the left side, past a diving attempt by David Freese, for a two-run single.
Kuhl did not remain in the visitors clubhouse to speak to reporters afterwards, but his manager and catcher had similar thoughts on his outing. "It was definitely fastball command," Hurdle said. "You saw the spray of the fastball, you saw the wild pitches. ... Unfortunately, we gifted the package a little bit."
Elias Diaz added: "He didn’t have command today. His fastball was all over the place. But we battled." Diaz also made two mistakes, although neither was responsible for a run. When Flores' ground ball reached left field, Meadows threw to home plate and Diaz rifled the ball back to second to try to prevent Flores from advancing.
However, Diaz committed yet another throwing error, allowing Flores to take third. Diaz then dropped a pop fly in foul territory to the left of home plate during the next at-bat. "I don’t know if that’s an ill-advised throw or not, and then we made another ill-advised throw that kind of pushed the inning," Hurdle said afterward.
Kuhl then allowed at least one baserunner in each of the following three innings. He seemed to gain traction in the third after issuing a leadoff walk and struck out Dominic Smith to begin the fourth, but Freese then committed an error.
Two pitches later, Hurdle and Ben Potenziano, the Pirates’ assistant athletic trainer, left the dugout to check on Kuhl. He finished the inning before being removed. Meanwhile, the Pirates' offense did not have a hit until the fifth inning. Mets starter Steven Matz retired 10 in a row after hitting Meadows in the helmet with a pitch in the first.
A breakthrough came in the fifth following Freese's leadoff walk. Diaz doubled to the corner in left and Jose Osuna followed with a run-scoring single through the left side of the infield. Polanco added an RBI single to tie the score, 2-2.
"We're going to keep fighting," Diaz said.
They took the lead in the seventh when Polanco managed to hit this curveball from Matz over the wall in right for a solo home run:
It was Polanco's second home run against a left-hander this season and the first time he's homered in back-to-back games. The left-hander went 2 for 4 and has 12 RBIs in 15 starts this month. The Pirates' momentum didn't last long.
Edgar Santana threw a fastball high and over the middle of the plate to Conforto in the bottom of the seventh, and Conforto hit it 383 feet for the tying home run. However, the offense made a push in the eighth against the Mets' bullpen — which has the third-highest ERA in the National League.
The Pirates loaded the bases with two walks, a single and a fielder's choice, only for Osuna to ground out to end an inning where both benches and dugouts cleared. They had only one hit the rest of the game. Brault walked Conforto on five pitches, gave up a single to Todd Frazier and threw a fastball inside to Flores in hope of getting a ground ball.
Instead, Flores pulled it down the left-field line to score the game-winning run:
The Pirates went 2 for 7 with runners in scoring position — they've batted only .234 with runners on base since May 18 — and their two top hitters in the lineup, Marte and Meadows, went a combined 0 for 8. Meanwhile, their bullpen has the fourth-highest ERA in the NL, and their rotation owns the sixth-highest ERA.
Additionally, they've saved negative-45 runs on defense — the fourth-worst mark in the majors — according to FanGraphs. Meadows and Polanco each almost dropped a fly ball, and the blunders helped the Mets snap a seven-game losing streak.
"We went fastball away strike one and we went fastball in," Brault said. "We got it in but he just got to it. He hit it pretty well down the line. Whatever."
1. Familia's beef nothing but 'drama'
Another slide into second base caused both benches and dugouts to clear. This was far different than Joe Musgrove's slide against the Cubs last month. With runners on the corners in the eighth inning, Harrison wanted to break up a double play at second with a hard slide to disrupt Asdrubal Cabrera's timing.
He accomplished his goal, too:
As Harrison trotted back to the dugout, Mets reliever Jeurys Familia started yelling at Harrison, accusing him of attempting a dirty slide to try to take out Cabrera at second. Harrison, shocked at first, began yelling back at Familia. Cabrera ran, grabbed Harrison and was laughing while holding him back from Familia.
Both benches and dugouts cleared, as the two men were separated.
"The whole thing with Familia, I’m not really worried about it," Harrison said. "I talked to Cabrera, he was good. That’s why you saw Cabrera come up to me after the altercation and say, ‘Hey, we’re good.’ Apparently [Familia] said, ‘Play the game the right way.’"
That didn't sit well with Harrison. Not much happened once both benches and dugouts cleared. Familia seemed to be the only Mets player who took exception to the slide. Following the slide, Cabrera quickly limped after he threw to first base and pointed to Harrison to assure him he was OK.
Familia started barking, though, and Harrison didn't appreciate the accusation.
The slide extended the inning and Diaz walked to load the bases one batter later. Osuna then hit a ground ball with an exit velocity of 105.5 mph that went right to Cabrera, who threw to first for the easy out.
"Drama. It was a good, hard baseball slide," Hurdle said.
2. Hurdle short on relief options.
The Pirates could ill afford another short start, yet Kuhl's injury forced Hurdle to turn to his bullpen in the fifth. Richard Rodriguez pitched two scoreless innings, followed by an inning each from Santana and Kyle Crick before Brault lasted less than two innings. Another short start could force them to make a roster move. After all, they are carrying three starting pitchers in the bullpen.
Sure, there are benefits to having length. This young rotation has a number of short starts on its resume and long relievers can bridge the gap; however, Hurdle must be careful how often he uses Brault, Tyler Glasnow and Clay Holmes. Brault and Glasnow threw a combined 23 pitches Monday night, and Holmes threw 20 pitches Sunday against the Diamondbacks.
This was only the second time this season Brault pitched on back-to-back days, and the second inning didn't go well, although he didn't think that factored into the result.
"I felt good," he said. "I felt really good. I felt a lot better than I did yesterday." Well, he was likely their only option and won't be available to pitch until at least Friday. Neither will Rodriguez, who just returned from a shoulder injury. Santana has now allowed three home runs in his past seven outings.
The bullpen is a mess, and Hurdle may hesitate to use those three on back-to-back days. Sure, the offense deserves some blame since Matz — who owned the lowest chase rate of any qualified starter in the majors — finished with seven strikeouts and 10 ground-ball outs. But the Pirates scored three unanswered runs to take a lead against a team that has the fewest wins in the NL.
It still wasn't enough.
"The pitch, I'm not sure of the execution where we got it, but he stroked it," Hurdle said of Flores' game-winning hit. "When you strip the line like that that time of the game usually it ends up pretty good for the other side."
3. Pirates need more from Freese.
The Pirates aren't getting enough production from Freese. They need him to spell Colin Moran or Bell against left-handed starters from time to time, but Freese entered Tuesday with a .208/.298/.229 slash line against lefties this season. The 35-year-old was also batting just .241/.287/.391 in 24 starts.
Freese singled to lead off the fifth inning and later scored on a single by Osuna, but he finished 1 for 5 with a strikeout. He also hasn't been as sharp defensively. He committed an error in the fourth inning and failed to stop a ground ball from reaching the outfield in the first, resulting in the two-run single for Flores. Freese has posted negative-1 defensive runs saved after he was credited with saving eight runs last season, when he was a National League Gold Glove finalist.
To be fair, the Pirates haven't given Freese as many reps as expected. He's had 110 at-bats and only 47 defensive chances at third base, compared to 117 at-bats and 115 defensive chances for Sean Rodriguez. Hurdle expressed confidence in Freese's ability to start producing more, particularly against left-handed pitching, but his defense will need to improve, especially with Jung Ho Kang at Triple-A.
"I just think sometimes the game runs in cycles," Hurdle said. "This guy has hit left-handers his entire career until the point in time we're at right now. In my sense of state, he's due. It's about to happen."