Tim Benz: Pirates-Mets was far from perfect, but plenty of fun
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My plan coming out of the All-Star break was to go to PNC Park Sunday in case New York Mets ace pitcher Jacob deGrom spun a perfect game against the normally putrid Pirates.
Instead, what we saw was a 7-6 Mets win that was as far from perfect as you could possibly imagine.
For both teams.
With deGrom sidelined due to forearm stiffness, fellow All-Star Taijuan Walker got the start for New York. He didn’t make it out of a first inning that saw six Pirates runs and a comedy show of Mets errors.
With the bases loaded, already up 3-0 in the bottom of the first, Pirates shortstop Kevin Newman dribbled a swinging bunt up the third-base line. Walker came off the mound toward the baseline and flipped it away with his glove, assuming he was touching up a foul ball.
He was not. Home plate umpire Jeremy Riggs called it fair. Hilarity ensued.
As the Mets argued, the ball remained alive by the Pirates dugout. All three runners came around to score.
In play, run(s) pic.twitter.com/bdTzc0SU9r
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 18, 2021
Mets manager Luis Rojas went ballistic when the play was deemed non-reviewable. He was ejected.
Credit the Pirates broadcast for pointing out the best factoid of the day. According to Statcast tracking of the game, Walker flipped the ball away harder than Newman managed to hit it.
“It was a base hit up the middle in my book,” Newman joked after the game.
But the Pirates couldn’t make a six-run first inning lead stand up. After scoring a run in the third, the Mets got three more in the fourth courtesy of Travis Blankenhorn’s home run off J.T. Brubaker with two runners on base. It was the first homer of Blankenhorn’s Major League Baseball career.
Blankenhorn's first career home run gets us back in the game. #LGM pic.twitter.com/m4kSq8oQB4
— New York Mets (@Mets) July 18, 2021
“I felt like one pitch I had my stuff and another I didn’t,” Brubaker said. “I executed a pitch up to Blankenhorn and he took me deep. … When you are trying to find your stuff and you execute a pitch, that’s how baseball works. It is going to come back and bite you.”
What followed were four innings of the Pirates hitters failing to add on and Pirates pitchers dancing through the raindrops to avoid completely losing the lead.
The most disappointing turn of events occurred in the bottom of the sixth. Up 6-5 in that frame, the Pirates loaded the bases with no outs. But New York left-hander Aaron Loup managed to strike out the next three hitters — Adam Frazier, Wilmer Difo and Bryan Reynolds — to end the inning without a run.
Loup ? pic.twitter.com/W08cFrV8ub
— New York Mets (@Mets) July 18, 2021
“They executed. They made pitches. They did a good job against the top of our order,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “But on the flip side, we’ve got to at least move the ball and put the ball in play. Make them catch the ball for those opportunities.”
The Pirates maintained that one-run margin into the top of the ninth. That’s when New York’s Michael Conforto took Bucs closer Rich Rodriguez deep for a two-run homer that ended up deciding the game.
Clutch homer for @mconforto8 to take the lead.
7 – 6 | #LGM pic.twitter.com/lKB0ATRiCe
— New York Mets (@Mets) July 18, 2021
Sunday’s result comes on the heels of Friday’s tension-packed 4-1 Pirates victory that featured a bench-clearing dust-up and Saturday’s 9-7 ninth inning walk-off celebration via Jacob Stallings’ grand slam.
Good morning. pic.twitter.com/I1HYkBud3h
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 18, 2021
Another statistical pearl from the AT&T SportsNet broadcast was that this is the first time in Major League Baseball history that one team blew a six-run lead against an opponent, only to turn around and erase a 6-0 deficit against the same team the next day.
Over the last two games, the Pirates and Mets combined for five errors and their pitching staffs combined for 20 walks, 29 runs and 45 hits allowed.
As flawed as both teams were this weekend, it sure was entertaining.
“It’s a series win,” Newman said. “That’s how I look at it. It’s what we take into the next series and how we build on it that really matters.”
Since Memorial Day weekend, the Pirates have been positioned to sweep a team in a series six times, and they have failed to do so every time.
The Pirates left for Arizona after the game for a three-game series against the Diamondbacks. They hold the worst record in baseball at 27-68. This might be the Pirates’ best shot for a sweep for the rest of the season. Or at least before the Diamondbacks come to Pittsburgh Aug. 23-25.
Against Arizona, the Buccos might even be able to do so while being, well, less than perfect.
That’s good. Because these Pirates are far from that, even when they are playing some of their best baseball. And by virtue of winning seven of their last 11 games, they actually may be doing exactly that.