Mets tattoo Jeff Locke, Pirates, 11-2

John Jaso led off Wednesday night's game with a single to center field. In the sixth, he singled to center again. In between, Noah Syndergaard set down 17 straight Pirates batters. Jeff Locke and Arquimedes Caminero were also quite bad in the interim, and the Bucs took one on the chin, 11-2, in Queens.

The Mets loaded the bases before Locke got an out, Wilmer Flores' tapper that scored the game's first run. Kelly Johnson fouled out to Erik Kratz for the second out, but Matt Reynolds drilled a double down the third-base line to put the Mets up, 3-0. Johnson added a solo homer in the third.

At that point, 4-0 felt insurmountable against Syndergaard, who was dominant, striking out 11, walking none and giving up five hits in 8 1-3 innings. He was left in for 115 pitches despite the Mets having a comfortable lead from early on.

The Mets made it a real blowout with three runs off Locke and the still terrible Caminero in the fifth and three more off Rob Scahill in the sixth. In his four-plus innings, Locke was tagged with nine hits and seven runs.

Starling Marte dived for Yoenis Cespedes' hit in the fifth and took an in-between hop to the face. Marte left the game at that point, presumably as a precaution.

Sean Rodriguez played center field in the late innings, which was odd. It felt like he should have pitched instead.

Jaso cracked a ninth-inning double actually went 3-for-4, scoring on David Freese's pinch-hit double that kept the Pirates' haven't-been-shut-out streak alive. Freese came around from second on a Flores error.

The Mets probably would have won this game on just a few runs, but it remains painfully obvious that the Pirates' pitching staff is in bad shape. Gerrit Cole's injury hit at a bad time (as if there's a good one), keeping guys like Locke in the rotation as potential replacements have hit rough patches in Indianapolis, while the relievers take turns giving up big inning after big inning.