The Pittsburgh Pirates (33-31) defeated the New York Mets (34-29) tonight by the final score of 4-0. For a full boxscore recap follow the link below…

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2016_06_14_pitmlb_nynmlb_1#game=2016_06_14_pitmlb_nynmlb_1,game_tab=box,game_state=Wrapup

Game Notes:

• Despite being hung with the loss Jacob deGrom pitched a solid game tonight only allowing 2 runs on 6 hits in 6 innings pitched. DeGrom struck out 9 and walked 1. His lone mistake was a 2-run home run allowed to Jung Ho Kang.
• Matt Reynolds was 1-3 and accounted for the Mets only extra base hit of the evening, a double in the bottom of the 9th.
• The Mets only had 3 hits on the evening.
• Starling Marte hit a 2-run home run off Jim Henderson in the top of the 8th.

Well tonight the Pirates continued where they left off in dominating the Mets, as the Mets dropped their tenth game out of their past eleven played against the Pirates. The Pirates came into this series struggling, and you could not tell by the way they played tonight. You have to wonder if there is a psychological edge that the Pirates hold over the Mets, because the Mets have simply had no answer it seems besides once over the last eleven games played. While the offense is struggling due to missing a couple of key pieces, tonight’s regulars were simply chewed up by Pirates starter Jameson Taillion on the evening, as he carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning. The Mets will face two struggling starting pitchers over the next two days, including Juan Nicasio who shut the Mets down last Tuesday. The way the offense is producing and the way the Pirates have handled the Mets, it’s tough to be optimistic the rest of this series. 

Right now simply put the Mets are a wounded bunch. It feels eerily similar to last June with how the offense is sputtering and injuries are taking a toll on the roster. Unfortunately the Mets are going to have to fight their way out of this as there is no saving grace coming their way in the way of another impact bat currently. The team is going to have to get healthy, but for now they need to start playing with a chip on their shoulder like the defending National Champions that they are. The offense needs to find ways to get creative to score runs as well, as many of our fears have come to light as to what the Mets offense would look like when they don’t hit home runs. This offense is still talented enough to be putting enough runs on the board and they need to figure out ways to do that before it gets uglier than it already has. 

• The Mets will play the second game of their three game series with the Pirates tomorrow evening with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 pm et. You can watch tomorrow’s game on SNY.

• Noah Syndergaard (6-2, 2.00 ERA) will face the Pirates for the second start in a row and square off with struggling Pirates left-hander Jeff Locke (5-4, 5.38 ERA).