BALTIMORE — It’s going to be a long final two months of the 2023 season for the Mets.
They extended their losing streak to four games on Friday night with a 10-3 loss to the Orioles.
The streak began on Tuesday, the day of the trade deadline, which signified the end of the season.
For good measure Friday, two of the biggest hits for the Orioles came from former Mets free-agent bust James McCann, who had a two-run single against John Curtiss in the fourth inning and a two-run double in the sixth against Phil Bickford.
McCann finished the night with five RBIs after entering the game with just 10 this season.
The Mets’ makeshift bullpen — and pitching staff as a whole — will certainly be exposed the rest of the way and Friday was a look at what’s likely to come.
Coming off a series sweep to the lowly Royals in Kansas City, the Mets visited a resurgent Orioles team that’s in first place in the tough AL East.
With Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander gone, David Peterson made his first start since June 27 following a demotion to the bullpen.
On a pitch count, Peterson pitched around three walks without giving up a run, but he lasted just three innings on 52 pitches.
The six relievers who followed were mostly terrible.
A lineup that was shut out on Wednesday and scored just a pair of runs on Thursday at Kansas City, was quiet again Friday, though Brandon Nimmo, who missed the three previous games with a tight left quad, was back at the top of the order.
Francisco Lindor doubled with two outs in the first, but was caught trying to steal third to end the inning.
The Mets loaded the bases with one out in the sixth, as Dean Kremer walked three in a row before Lindor dunked a two-run single to right to tie the score at 2-2.
Kremer exited for Mike Baumann, who got Pete Alonso to hit into an inning-ending double play.
A Ryan O’Hearn single scored Jordan Westburg to give the Orioles the go-ahead run in the sixth before McCann blasted a shot off the high wall in left that would have been a homer in every ballpark other than Camden Yards.
That was part of a four-run sixth inning that Baltimore matched with a four-run seventh, as Bickford and Reed Garrett combined to give up eight runs in one inning of work spanning the sixth and seventh.
The Mets didn’t recover and they fell to 50-59.
They can match a season-high by falling 10 games under .500 with another loss on Saturday.
If that doesn’t happen Saturday, it seems certain to occur at some point this year, as the current roster needs nearly everything to go right just to win a game.