The New York Mets returned once again to their losing ways against the Colorado Rockies, 3-2, ruining another good start by Nolan McLean with some of the same horrible defense and punchless offense that characterized their recent 12-game losing streak.

McLean was on his strikeout game early as he struck out six of the first nine hitters he faced in the first three innings. But Colorado scored first in the fourth with a series of hard-hit singles by Edouard Julien, Mike Moniak and Troy Johnston, with Johnston’s hit scoring Julien.

The Mets tied the game in the fifth on a solo home run by Tyrod Taylor, but it didn’t take McLean long to give the Rockies the lead again. He got rocked hard on a double by Julien, then walked Moniak, and that was when bad Mets defense did McLean in once again, as first baseman Mark Vientos fielded a perfect double play ball but drilled Moniak in the back on the throw to second, with the error loading the bases.

That was it for McLean, and Huascar Brazoban came on in relief for the Mets. Brazoban did his job by getting a double-play ball, but it allowed Julien to score his second run of the day to put Colorado up 2-1.

That was all the Rockies needed, but they added an insurance run in the seventh inning off Brazoban on a double to right by Sullivan and a single by Jake McCarthy to score him.

For the Mets, the rest of the game was about offensive futility that’s stupefying to watch at times. The Mets loaded the bases in the first with one out and couldn’t score, then did the same thing in the eighth and duplicated the results as Luis Robert Jr. fouled out and Vientos struck out.

At one point in between these two “rallies” the Rockies retired 21 of 22 hitters, and the Mets wound up with just four hits, the Taylor home run and three singles. Brett Baty struck out three times, and Vientos and Marcus Semien whiffed twice each as starter Jose Quintana went 5-1/3 innings and gave up just the Taylor home run to get the win.

The loss gave the Mets back-to-back losses as well as a series loss against the Rockies, although they do get a chance to salvage a game in the second half of the doubleheader this evening. The only thing keeping the Mets out of the NL East is the awful results being posted by the Philadelphia Phillies, who have lost 11 of their last 12 games as both teams continue to be shockingly bad in the early going.