The players-only meeting didn’t work.
Less than 24 hours after Francisco Lindor requested a team meeting following the Mets’ second straight loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Amazins’ again got embarrassed at PNC Park.
This time, Oneil Cruz and Tommy Pham teed off on Mets starter Frankie Montas to start, slugging back-to-back first inning home runs that contributed to a 12-1 Pirates win on Sunday. Cruz struck again in the seventh with a two-run homer that erased any thought of a Mets comeback.
Sunday’s defeat now makes it the Mets’ 13th loss in the last 16 games.
Just like the first two games of the series, the Mets fell into a huge deficit and never recovered.
It took just two hits off Montas for Pittsburgh to get on the board — a Ke’Bryan Hayes two-run single that put the home team ahead, 2-0. The next batter, Cruz, hit his two-run homer and Pham followed with a solo shot against his former team.
Montas continued to struggle and gave up a sacrifice fly to Andrew McCutchen in the second inning, making the score 6-0.
Sunday was Montas’ second outing of the season after returning from a spring-training lat strain that delayed him three months. He managed to hold the Atlanta Braves scoreless over five innings last Tuesday, but got charged for six in four innings of work on Sunday.
He allowed seven hits, one walk and struck out five over 86 pitches. His statline could’ve gotten worse in the fourth inning but the righty managed to strand two runners in scoring position.
Montas now has 6.00 ERA.
His late efforts, though, went in vain as his team’s offense stayed quiet.
Their first run of the game didn’t come until Luis Torrens hit an opposite field home run in the top of the fifth.
The homer accounted for one of seven hits Sunday. Only one batter — Ronny Mauricio — reached on a walk. And the team went hitless in five opportunities with runners in scoring position. The lone run was allowed by Pirates starter Mike Burrows, who also gave up four hits, one walk and struck out five in 4.1 innings of work.
Meanwhile, the Pirates piled on and turned the game into a laugher.
In the fifth, outfielder Bryan Reynolds slugged a leadoff homer then Pham struck again with an RBI single that stretched the Mets’ deficit to seven.
Then Cruz achieved his second multi-homer game of his career with his 366-foot shot to right in the seventh.
The game became comical when Mets right fielder Travis Jankowski entered as a pitcher in the eighth. He loaded the bases then walked Alexander Canario to add another Pirates run, making the score 11-2. First baseman Spencer Horwitz added the final run on a sacrifice fly before Jankowski recorded three outs.
The Pirates sweep capped a three-game series where the Mets got outscored 30-4.
Carlos Mendoza’s team will now have a needed rest day before facing beginning a three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday.
