#Mets pitchers continue to unravel at the same time

At least the Mets starting pitchers gave them consistency this weekend.

All three fell apart in the middle innings.

On Friday night, Jacob deGrom’s replacement, Walker Lockett, was tagged for three runs in the sixth inning. Steven Matz was hammered for five runs in the fifth a day later. And Rick Porcello couldn’t get through the sixth with a lead on Sunday to complete a dismal sweep that saw this team’s one-time strength be their undoing.

“Two pitches,” was Porcello’s lament after the Mets capped a lost weekend in Philadelphia with an ugly 6-2 defeat to fall five games under .500 at 9-14.

Porcello was referring to two regrettable pitches, which resulted in three runs, an 0-2 sinker to Alec Bohm and a first-pitch hanging slider to Andrew McCutchen, that derailed his afternoon.

For a while it looked Porcello was going to turn in his third straight quality outing and salvage the finale of this three-game series. He had limited the Phillies to one run across five solid frames, stranding five runners. But after retiring seven of the previous eight batters he faced entering the sixth, the free agent signee was battered. In the span of two pitches, a one-run lead became a two-run deficit, as Bohm’s run-scoring double was followed by McCutchen’s two-run homer.

“The first-pitch slider to McCutchen was just the worst pitch I threw of the [day],” Porcello said after falling to 1-3 with a 5.76 ERA in his first season as a Met. “He did what you’re supposed to do with a pitch like that.”

Porcello’s performance was eerily similar to the work of Lockett and Matz. Both were able to pitch in and out of trouble early in the game, only to see it come crumbling down in one big innings. Lockett had a 4-2 lead in the sixth inning Friday night, before J.T. Realmuto’s three-run shot. On Saturday, the Mets were down 1-0 in the fifth, until Matz was shellacked for five runs on four hits in the fifth.

The rotation is in tatters right now. Noah Syndergaard was lost for the season in March after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Marcus Stroman opted out of the season last week due to COVID-19 health concerns. Before Sunday’s game, Rojas wouldn’t guarantee Matz and his 9.00 ERA would make his next scheduled start. It’s uncertain if deGrom (neck tightness) will be able to pitch this week. Michael Wacha (shoulder inflammation) will throw a simulated game this week, but a date for his return is unknown. Reliever-turned-starter Robert Gsellman will start Monday.

“It’s tough, I’m not going to lie to you,” Porcello said. “Guys are coming in, making spot starts or whatever. We’ve had some unfortunate things with guys going down or being sore, and things like that. As far as the momentum in the rotation goes, having those same five guys taking the ball every day, that’s not happening for us.

“But it doesn’t mean we can’t build off one another no matter who’s on the mound. It definitely presents some challenges.”