Edwin Diaz blew it twice for the Mets — first Thursday night and then again Friday — and Pete Alonso defended himself on Twitter for lobbying to get the game in the previous night.

This was not how the Mets wanted to finish off a suspended game.

After choking away a ninth-inning two-run lead with two outs in the rain Thursday, Diaz took the loss a day later, allowing a Paul DeJong RBI single in the 10th inning for a 5-4 loss to the Cardinals. Minutes later, Alonso responded to a tweet by Kevin Clancy of Barstool Sports, who had said he was upset at the Mets first baseman’s actions the night before.

The Mets were on the verge of victory Thursday, leading by two runs in the ninth inning as heavy rains came down. Initially, it looked like a rain delay was about to begin, before the Mets — led by Alonso — prodded the umpire crew to keep the tarp off the field.
Crew chief Jeff Kellogg gave the order for the grounds crew to reverse course, and after a nine-minute delay in which Diaz largely stood still, the game resumed.

“The rain started to lighten up a little bit and we said, ‘Go ahead and pull the tarp,’ ” Kellogg said.

After the game ended in a Mets defeat Friday, Clancy tweeted his displeasure with Alonso pushing for the game to go on Thursday night.
Alonso quickly tweeted back: “Are you kidding me? Why are you mad at me for having confidence in my teammates? I’m a damn competitor and I’ll take my team over any one else any day. A real Mets fan doesn’t talk like that. Clean it up. #YaGottaBelieve.”

Clancy replied: “YOU’RE NOT A WEATHERMAN PETE”

Alonso then wrote he thinks his team can “win against anyone” rain or shine. Clancy accepted the reasoning and wrote they were on the “same team.”

Despite the Twitter spat, it wasn’t Alonso’s fault Diaz’s issues continued. In the top of the 10th Friday, he allowed a bloop single to Yairo Munoz, who stole second and went to third on Matt Carpenter’s groundout. Diaz (1-4) was ahead of DeJong 1-2, but couldn’t put him away. All six Mets were retired by the Cardinals bullpen, not a single player getting the ball out of the infield.

So the Mets (33-35) again failed to reach .500, dropping the opener of the four-game series they seemed to have in the bag. It was the latest bullpen meltdown that has prevented the Mets from taking off. In a pair of gut-punch defeats, Diaz blew a three-run lead against the Dodgers on May 29 and the bullpen also flushed a 5-1 lead against the Diamondbacks on June 1.

“You want to win those games. You got to win them if you’re a good team, but we didn’t get the job done,” manager Mickey Callaway said. “We’ve had a few of those in the last couple of weeks that have hurt us.”

After the umpires decided to let the teams play the bottom of the ninth Thursday, Diaz blew the save, allowing a run-scoring single to Kolten Wong and an RBI double to Harrison Bader with two outs. Bader was thrown out after slipping between second and third base. At that point, the tarp was put on the field, and the game was suspended until Friday. As he did Thursday night, Callaway on Friday again said he had no issue with how it was handled.

“Anything can change anything, but no regrets,” he said.

Bader factored into more than just tying the game. He kept it close, too. The Bronxville, N.Y., native made an acrobatic grab of an Amed Rosario drive while sprinting back towards the center-field fence in the sixth inning with the bases loaded. A run came across, but two more might have.

Michael Conforto had given the Mets a 2-1 lead in the third with a two-run shot, before DeJong pulled the Cardinals even at two with a solo homer in the sixth.