NY Mets drop series finale to D-backs 7-1 as 7th-inning collapse erases strong McLean start

The New York Mets dropped the series finale to Arizona 7-1 on Thursday, wasting a quality start from Nolan McLean after the bullpen surrendered 7 runs over 2.2 innings and turned a tight game into a blowout.

McLean gave the Mets everything he had. He went 6.1 innings, struck out 8, and allowed just 2 earned runs — the kind of line that wins games on most nights. The only offense he had to work with came in the bottom of the 1st, when Luis Robert Jr. crushed his 2nd home run of the season to center field after Francisco Lindor and Bo Bichette were retired ahead of him. That 1-0 lead stood for six-plus innings.

Then the 7th inning happened.

The Mets bullpen couldn’t hold it

McLean recorded the first out of the 7th before a Fernandez single and a Perdomo walk put two runners on and ended his night. Luke Weaver came on and immediately faced pinch-hitter Gabriel Moreno, who doubled to right — scoring Perdomo and tying the game at 1. Alek Thomas reached on a fielder’s choice, scoring Fernandez to put Arizona ahead. A Tim Tawa sacrifice fly made it 3-1. Jorge Barrosa then tripled to right, plating Thomas, and a 1-0 game was suddenly 4-1 before the inning was over. The 2 runs charged to McLean came on Weaver’s watch via inherited runners — the bullpen owned the rest.

4 runs. The lead McLean spent 6.1 innings building was gone.

Luis García came on in the 8th and the damage continued. Vargas doubled, Perdomo walked, Del Castillo doubled in 2, and Moreno added another double to push it to 7-1. Richard Lovelady came on to close out the inning without further damage — 7 runs allowed by the bullpen in total, 5 of them their own.

The offense had no answer. Mark Vientos, Marcus Semien, Francisco Alvarez, and Brett Baty combined to go 1-for-14 with no RBIs. Tyrone Taylor and Luis Torrens went a combined 0-for-5. Jared Young pinch-hit in the 7th and grounded out to first. The Mets put together 6 hits as a team, stranded runners in the 3rd and 5th, and managed nothing after Robert’s solo shot in the opening frame.

McLean’s 6.1-inning, 8-strikeout performance deserved a win, or at minimum a competitive finish. Instead, Weaver and García combined to allow 7 runs on the bullpen’s watch and made the final score look like a different game entirely. The rotation has been doing its part. The real question heading into the next series is whether this bullpen can be trusted to protect a lead — because Thursday night was a painful reminder of what happens when it can’t.