The Mets may have lost 6-3 to the Houston Astros on Sunday afternoon, but rookie Zac Thornton continued to impress in his rookie season.

The 24-year-old left-hander pitched five innings, allowing six hits, one walk, and two earned runs across 97 pitches, striking out five batters in the process.

"It was a gusty outing," asserted interim manager Andy Green of his greenhorn hurler. "He had to grind it out.

"Some at-bats turned into a lot of pitches... it was a hard-fought five innings for him."

Houston's batting order has some star power for pitchers to deal with, including AL MVP favorite and Triple Crown chaser Yordan Alvarez, who Thornton faced three times today.

Thornton struck him out, then got Alvarez to hit into two flyouts.

"[The Astros] have got good hitters, who worked pesky at-bats," Thornton said postgame. "I tried my best to throw good put-away pitches, and they hit them."

Thornton was then asked about his mentality as a rookie with the opportunity to prove he's good enough to be a core member of the team's starting rotation for the present and future.

"I just want to try to show up to the ballpark every day and be the same person, doing everything I can in every start."

New York, who were leading 3-2 entering the sixth inning, allowed four runs (one unearned, as a result of an errant throw home by first baseman Jared Young) on four hits in the sixth and seventh innings.

Jonathan Pintaro struggled in the sixth inning, and Jefry Yan was on the mound for Young's error in the seventh. They each threw 20 pitches.

Green, however, didn't seem upset when reflecting on their performances today.

"Pintaro is good, he's got the capacity to get lefties out consistently, he just left a pitch where he didn't want to," Green said. "The seventh inning was an ugly inning for us. It wasn't all on [Yan]... the error that brought in two runs; it's not a play we want to see happen."

He added: "Bullpens give up runs periodically. We've lived in a world where they hadn't been giving up runs for a long period of time."

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