Mets defense reaches new low in wild pair of plays vs. Orioles

The New York Mets are in the thick of the NL wild-card race. Reverting to a vintage “LOLMets” form isn’t going to help them.

That’s pretty much what happened in their game against the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday, starting with when a swinging bunt from O’s third baseman Ramón Urías in the fourth inning somehow turned into a run scored.

Mets starting pitcher Jose Quintana and catcher Francisco Alvarez both ran for the ball down the first base line, with Alvarez winning out and lunging to make a wild barehanded play. The play didn’t work out, as Alvarez only lightly deflected the ball as he fell to the ground.

Unfortunately for New York, Orioles rookie Colton Cowser began the play at second base. As he ran for third, he saw a fully empty home plate in front of him and took advantage of the opportunity.

End result: a run scored for Baltimore, making it 4-1.

That wasn’t the end of it, though.

One batter later, Orioles catcher James McCann — a former Mets player whom the team is still paying $8 million this season after cutting his disastrous $40.6 million contract — hit a two-run homer against them.

The Mets came tantalizingly close to erasing all that. An eighth-inning rally, capped by a J.D. Martinez homer, cut the Orioles’ lead to 7-5. Given Baltimore’s recent bullpen woes (they rank 28th in MLB in bullpen ERA over the past 30 days), that was a surmountable lead when the bottom of the ninth rolled around at Citi Field.

But first, the top of the ninth inning happened. Oh, how it happened.

With runners on first and second, the Mets went full Little League defense to double the Orioles’ lead. It started with left fielder Brandon Nimmo diving and missing a fly ball and ended with pitcher Danny Young missing third base on a throw for him.

The two-error play put the Orioles up 9-5, a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

You just can’t embarrass yourselves in front of Kevin James like that.

The loss puts the Mets’ record at 65-61 on the season, 2.5 games back from the Atlanta Braves for the final NL wild-card spot.