Edwin Diaz blows another save before Mets implode in 10th against Giants for fifth straight loss
Another day, another back-breaking loss for the Mets.
And Edwin Diaz was once again largely responsible for it.
The closer — just put back into that role by Carlos Mendoza on Saturday, blew a save in the top of the ninth and the Mets went on to lose their fifth straight game, this one 7-2 in 10 innings to the Giants.
Before Sean Reid-Foley gave up the go-ahead hit to Brett Wisely in the 10th and the Mets then stumbled their way through the rest of the inning, Diaz had again failed to close the door on a potential win by giving up the tying run for his third straight blown save.
“He’s our closer,’’ Carlos Mendoza said. “In order for us to win games, he’s got to pitch and I felt that was the right spot. He’s got to continue to pitch and my job is to find lanes for him. He’s got to fight through it. He’s too good of a pitcher.”
And Diaz said he thought he pitched better Saturday than in Friday’s scoreless inning.
“I’m fine,” Diaz said. “I’m good. The result didn’t go my way, but how I performed was way better than last week.”
Either way, it ended in another loss.
“This is not just him,’’ Francisco Lindor said of Diaz. “It’s on every one of us. We’ve got to play the game better.”
Still, the Mets were just two outs away from victory when Diaz allowed a game-tying RBI single to LaMonte Wade Jr. that scored pinch-runner Ryan McKenna from second.
Wade was thrown out at second by right fielder Starling Marte and Diaz got out of the inning.
The Mets had a chance to win it in the bottom of the inning.
Brett Baty walked with one out and Tomas Nido followed with a routine grounder to second, but Thairo Estrada and shortstop Marco Luciano fumbled the exchange at second for an error.
Baty got to third on a Lindor forceout, but Pete Alonso flied to left to end the inning.
The Mets have now lost seven of eight and are a season-worst nine games under .500.
“I don’t feel like, as a group, we’re pressing,’’ Lindor said. “The bottom line is, we’re not executing at the right times and we’re not winning games. We’ve got to hurry up and start winning games.”
It wasted an outstanding start by Luis Severino, who took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and gave up just one run over seven innings, as he outdueled Jordan Hicks.
But it wasn’t enough for Diaz to finish off.
Marte gave the Mets a 1-0 lead with his sixth homer of the season with one out in the second.
Severino retired the first 12 batters he faced before Matt Chapman walked to start the fifth. And San Francisco didn’t get its first hit until Wisely, the No. 9 hitter, singled to left— just over the leaping attempt by Baty at third.
Severino followed by walking Luis Matos.
After Estrada grounded into a force out that sent Wisely to third, a Patrick Bailey RBI single tied the game at 1-1.
But that was all the right-hander, who had been shaky in his previous three starts, would allow Saturday.
He issued a two-out walk to Heliot Ramos in the seventh and while Mendoza then went to the mound, the manager opted to keep Severino in and he rewarded Mendoza’s faith by getting Curt Casali to pop out to end the inning on Severino’s 103rd pitch, his highest total of the season.
The game went downhill from there for the Mets, who have one more game against the Giants before the Dodgers come to Queens on Monday.
“We have to stay optimistic and stick with each other,’’ Lindor said. “We understand we’re gonna get through this. It’s just a matter of when. We’ve got to hurry up and start winning ballgames; work, grind, stay the course [and] try to get out of this.”
