3 NY Mets players to blame most for getting swept this weekend at home

3) Paul Blackburn

Fine, maybe Carlos Mendoza shouldn't have taken out Clay Holmes with a 5-1 lead after only five innings and 79 pitches of work. Maybe the Mets should've taken advantage with runners in scoring position (after all, they only scored all those runs due to defensive blunders by the Rays). But don't you think that with a four-run lead, any pitcher who comes into the game should be able to protect it?

Blackburn came in on Friday night and had a disastrous outing. He allowed four runs on four hits while retiring just one batter, effectively erasing the four-run lead his team had built up in the half-inning before. This just makes Kodai Senga's injury more concerning; if guys like Blackburn are supposed to take his place, and they struggle to get an out in relief, what shape does that leave the rotation in?

This was just Blackburn's third appearance of the season, and his second consecutive shaky one. In the Mets' 13-5 win over the Colorado Rockies on June 8, Blackburn gave up three runs on seven hits in four innings of relief. Of course, due to the large margin of victory, he did his job well enough and ate enough innings to preserve bullpen arms, but if we're to see Blackburn in the rotation to replace Senga, that line might look a bit less comfortable, and if that wasn't enough to make us uneasy, Friday night's mess certainly did the trick.