As has been the case on too many occasions in 2015, the New York Mets gave away runs and a game on Friday night as the Braves came from behind to defeat the Mets 2-1 in the eighth inning.

For the third time in a week, the Mets lost a game while leading after seven innings – they are now 32-3 when leading after seven.

How it all started.

With the Mets leading 1-0 and Jacob deGrom still on the mound in the bottom of the eighth Andrelton Simmons – who is now 15-for-35 with four runs scored and six RBI against the Mets this season – led off the eighth inning with his 14th double of the year.

The misplayed sacrifice bunt by Ruben Tejada.

Eury Perez was the next batter, and he gave himself up for a sacrifice bunt. DeGrom went to field the bunt to the right of the mound, but the ball was hit hard enough for deGrom to have an easy play on Simmons at third.

However, after look towards third, deGrom realized he had no play, as Tejada did not retreat to third base after realizing deGrom would field the bunt, leaving third base vacated and forcing deGrom to throw to first. He barely got Perez.

“[Tejada] did the right thing,” Terry Collins said. “He’s got to go get the ball. We’re trying to get an out there. I’m not worried about anything else. If this guy bunts the ball too hard and Ruben doesn’t come after it, and if Jake doesn’t get it, we’ve got first and third. We’ve got a big situation. He did the right thing. We made the right play.”

“I was just trying to get off there quick and hopefully maybe have a chance at third,” DeGrom said. “But it was hit pretty hard, so Ruben’s got to come in on that just in case I don’t get it. He put down a good bunt, which made Ruben come in, and we didn’t have a play there, so I got the out at first.”

It’s not that Tejada should not have charged. It’s that Tejada clearly did not read the ball or deGrom’s angle/speed towards the ball well enough to know deGrom would get to it. The right play is for Duda to charge, Dilson Herrera to cover first and leave second base vacated and for Tejada to see that and retreat to third rather than continue to charge. If the ball was hit more towards the line, then it becomes a perfect sac bunt by Perez and that’s when the Mets could have tipped their cap to the Braves.

It’s just a matter of inexperience for Tejada at third base on that play. It’s not totally his fault – he’s being asked to do something he has about two weeks of experience at in his pro career. In fairness, he was fantastic at third outside of that play last night, and has done a nice job generally in what is a completely new position for him.

At the end of the day, however, that becomes an out the Mets simply gave away, regardless of the explanation, which while not illogical, doesn’t make what happened right.

The infield in.

Next up was Pedro Ciriaco with one out and the tying run at third. The Mets brought the infield in, and deGrom induced a weak ground ball to Wilmer Flores at shortstop.

Flores did the right thing to look Simmons back to third, but for some reason he double-clutched and threw deliberately to first base, and Ciriaco beat out the weak ground ball for an infield single.

“That’s the second out of the inning,” Collins said. “It kind of takes the starch out of things.”

Instead of having a runner at third and two out, the Braves had runners at the corners and one out.

“I thought [Simmons] was going on contact. Just my mistake not knowing how fast the runner was,” Flores explained of his mental mistake. “I just took too long to throw to first. Obviously games like this, any mistake will cost you. It happened.”

That it did. Friday night’s mistake for Flores was a very poor mental mistake. There’s no excusing what happened, and at least he owned up to it and didn’t make any excuses for the blunder.

Unfortunately for the Mets, the mistake is a part of a very long line of defensive miscues, mental mistakes, and issues regarding poor range and footwork not just for Flores, but Daniel Murphy, Dilson Herrera, and even David Wright the last time the Mets were in Atlanta.

It was the second out the Mets gave away in the inning, which was the fifth or sixth out the Mets have given away over the last week.

The pitching change.

With 97 pitches under his belt, showing no signs of fatigue and having done nothing wrong, Terry Collins decided to lift deGrom from the game and hand over the mess to Sean Gilmartin to face lefty Jace Peterson.

“He’s at 97 pitches, 90 degrees out,” Collins explained. “He hung the slider to Simmons. He got the ball up to Perez, even though he was bunting. I just thought it was time. If he’d have got Ciriaco out, he would have stayed in to face the next guy. One out, I was looking for a strikeout.”

In fairness to Gilmartin, left-handed hitters were hitting .229 coming into the game against him, and Gilmartin had most certainly earned higher leverage situations. And if he answers Collins’ call and gets Peterson, perhaps this isn’t as big of a discussion point.

However, deGrom was the best pitcher available to Collins in that situation, the 97 pitches under his belt not withstanding.

The double.

Gilmartin was unable to get Peterson, who delivered a double over the head of Juan Lagares.

“I had no chance at that ball,” Lagares explained. “He crushed that ball … I played a little shallow. He’s a leadoff guy, and the infield played in. There’s nothing I can do about that.”

He’s right. Even at 100 percent, Lagares would have no chance at it. It would’ve taken a miracle, Willie Mays-like catch to make that play, and it would have tied the game at a minimum.

Besides, with all of the blunders on the infield, the game might have been lost anyway.

The forgotten E9.

None of this includes Curtis Granderson’s dropped popup in right field which forced deGrom to throw about seven extra pitches in that inning and might have been the difference between staying in and coming out in the eighth inning.

In retrospect, it was a huge play.

This is just the latest in what has been a multitude of games in which the defense has failed the club. Assuming nothing changes, it won’t be the last time this season either. Unfortunately, it is very much a part of their 36-33 record, which was unfortunately predicted well before the season began.

If the foundation of the club is going to be built on power-armed pitchers, it is absolutely vital the Mets get better infield defense. There is no rationalizing it with a few of the fly ball pitchers they have, or hoping one guy or another outhits their defensive deficiencies, mainly because nobody on the team has done that, to be quite frank.

It’s not just the physical mistakes and limitations with these guys – it’s the mental mistakes, the mis-positioning, and the overall process which is flawed with this defense.

It’s just not going to work, and this just isn’t survivable in a 162 game season.