NEW YORK _ Warning: This is not an old story. The following events really did happen, again, Saturday at Citi Field.
The Mets blew a late lead in a 5-4 loss to the Braves, extending their losing streak to a season-high seven games. They haven't won since last Saturday in Chicago, are 10 games under .500 at 37-47 and are at risk of getting swept by first-place Atlanta (50-34) in the series finale Sunday night.
In the ninth, the Mets put the potential tying run on second and winning run on third with nobody out. Michael Conforto, Todd Frazier and Dominic Smith went down in order to end it.
This time, it was Seth Lugo with the blown save, the Mets' most-in-the-majors 21st of the year. Nick Markakis and rookie Austin Riley hit back-to-back homers on consecutive pitches in the eighth inning.
After allowing just one run in two months _ April 22 through June 21 _ Lugo has had an awful week: three games, three blown saves, seven earned runs in 3 2/3 innings. His ERA has risen from 2.23 to 3.60.
Robinson Cano's go-ahead single in the bottom of the sixth put manager Mickey Callaway in a familiar position: Trying to navigate the late innings with a bullpen that has proven to be untrustworthy. With the likes of Jeurys Familia and Justin Wilson out injured _ and Robert Gsellman having pitched poorly Friday _ Lugo was the de facto seventh- and eighth-inning man.
The seventh went fine. Lugo worked around Dansby Swanson's two-out double with a strikeout of Freddie Freeman.
The eighth did not go fine. After Josh Donaldson struck out swinging, Markakis sent a 3-and-0 fastball into the seats in left-center. On the next pitch, Riley _ among Pete Alonso's challengers in the NL Rookie of the Year race _ one-upped Donaldson by hitting one into the second deck in left.
Because Mets relievers tossed seven innings after Steven Matz's rain-shortened two-inning start, their collective ERA actually went down to 5.64, third-worst in the majors. In June, the bullpen has a 7.62 ERA, worst in the majors.
That ruined what had been a feel-good day for the Mets, starting with the feting of the 1969 World Series champion team _ 15 members of that club honored in on-field pregame ceremony watched from the dugout by their 2019 counterparts.
Right-hander Chris Mazza, a 29-year-old journeyman, tossed four innings of one-run ball in his major league debut, eight years after being drafted in the 27th round by the Twins. He scattered five hits, walked none and struck out two (including Freeman for his first).
Sixth-inning knocks from Jeff McNeil (tying RBI double) and Cano (RBI single) had Mazza in line for the win before the Braves' eighth-inning comeback. Cano finished 2 for 4, his second multi-hit game in a row.
Matz's outing lasted two innings, cut short by a 70-minute rain delay. He allowed two runs in the first _ in line with his season and career trends of struggling in the opening inning _ and bounced back with a scoreless second before the deluge began. Both Atlanta runs scored on Ozzie Albies' single to left-center.
The Mets made Atlanta right-hander Julio Teheran work hard before the rain delay _ 50 pitches in two innings _ and it paid off when play resumed. Smith opened the Mets' scoring in the third with a solo homer, his fourth of the week and eighth of the year. And McNeil added an RBI double in the fourth, concluding a 10-pitch at-bat during which he fouled off five consecutive pitches.
Teheran allowed only those two runs in 3 1/3 innings, striking out four and walking three. Ex-Met Jerry Blevins stranded a pair of Teheran's runners when he got Cano (flyout) and Conforto (groundout) to end the fourth.
