Mets ninth-inning rally falls short as Ryne Stanek struggles again in loss to Diamondbacks

Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets.All night long, the Mets had chances to score against Arizona and failed to deliver in a 4-3 loss, just their second of the season at Citi Field.Trailing by three runs heading into the bottom of the ninth, they had one more rally.It started after the Diamondbacks added two more runs to their lead in the top of the ninth.Tyrone Taylor led off the bottom of the inning against Justin Martinez with his first homer of the season to cut the deficit to two runs.Francisco Lindor, who reached base three times, walked to bring up Juan Soto, who also walked.Pete Alonso was then drilled on a 2-2 pitch by side-armer Ryan Thompson to load the bases for Mark Vientos, who’d homered in the third.This time, Vientos struck out.Jesse Winker, who pinch-hit for Starling Marte in the eighth, seemingly fouled a ball off his foot, but the ball went to first and it was ruled a run-scoring groundout.With runners on second and third, Jeff McNeil got the count to 3-1 before he was walked intentionally.Francisco Alvarez grounded to third to end it.The loss also came thanks to another rough outing by Ryne Stanek, who gave up the lead in the seventh.Right-hander Huascar Brazobán tossed two scoreless innings as the opener, Brandon Waddell took over to start the third in his first MLB appearance since 2021, after spending most of the last three years pitching professionally in Asia.The lefty made easy work of the Diamondbacks lineup, with 4 ¹/₃ shutout innings — and four strikeouts.He left with one out in the seventh, replaced by the struggling Stanek, who’d pitched poorly in his previous two outings.Then the right-hander gave up three consecutive two-out hits to the Diamondbacks, including a two-run, go-ahead pinch-hit single by Geraldo Perdomo to put Arizona up, 2-1.Stanek has allowed two runs in each of his last three appearances — and Wednesday’...