In the second inning, Jacob deGrom allowed doubles to Xander Bogaerts and Christian Vazquez to give the Boston Red Sox a 1-0 lead. That qualified this as a bad deGrom start.

Overall, deGrom “only” struck out nine and “only” pitched six innings. His punishment for allowing the one run on just three hits and one walk and for his failing to get a hit himself was a loss.

While deGrom was having an “off-night,” which by the way is better than anyone else’s best, the New York Mets offense was making Nick Pivetta look like deGrom.

Pivetta entered the game with a 3.48 ERA and 1.355 WHIP while walking nearly as much as he struck out. That made him unhittable to this Mets lineup. His final line was 5.0 IP, H, 0 ER, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K.

It’s not like Pivetta was having the game of his life either. He was throwing hittable pitches. The problem is the Mets can’t hit those right now.

The Mets also couldn’t do anything against the Red Sox bullpen. What makes this so maddening was the Mets pitching was PHENOMENAL.

After deGrom, Aaron Loup, Trevor May, and Edwin Diaz each pitched a scoreless inning. The four pitchers combined to allow one run over nine with one walk and 15 strikeouts.

It was just a lame effort all around. Things were at their worst when Michael Conforto and J.D. Davis struck out on pitches in the dirt and in front of the plate. That’s not just how this night went. It’s been like this for a while now, and it needs to change.

The Mets have been swept for the first time this season, and they lost their first home series. They’re also under .500. At least no one in the NL East is really playing any better.

Game Notes: Jerry Blevins was at the game after announcing his retirement. Francisco Lindor was booed again.