METSGAMEDAY

Wilmer Flores gave Citi Field a jolt with a pinch-hit, three-run home run in the seventh inning on Monday night, but it was not enough to energize the Mets to a win.

Flores pulled the Mets within one but they fell for the seventh straight game with a 6-4 loss to the Pirates to drop them to 31-45 on the season. They are now only a half-game up in the standings on Derek Jeter’s floundering Marlins ballclub.

Seth Lugo pitched effectively — three runs, one earned, on four hits over five innings — but received no help from the rest of his team, which committed three errors behind him and collected just two hits before the seventh inning.

Luis Guillorme was responsible for two of the errors, which resulted in runs for the Pirates in the first and third innings. He also faltered at the plate in the eighth inning with two runners on and two outs, grounding out to third to end the threat.

The Mets bats woke up in the seventh, when Jose Reyes and Kevin Plawecki led off with back-to-back doubles to knock out Pirates starter Jameson Taillon. Guillorme drew a walk the next at-bat while Flores homered to deep left field.

Michael Conforto drew a four-pitch walk, but Pirates reliever Stephen Brault escaped the jam after he got a generous strike call on a 3-0 pitch to Jose Bautista, which helped him work back to striking out the righty.

He then got Asdrubal Cabrera to ground into a double play to end the four-run inning.

Gregory Polanco homered for the Pirates in the second inning while Josh Bell added some much-needed insurance in the sixth with a two-run home run off rookie Tyler Bashlor. The Pirates added another insurance run in the eighth with a sac fly from Elias Diaz.