Ronnie Mauricio ruins Lou Seal’s special night in 5-3 Mets win

Matt Chapman’s two homers weren’t enough after two Mets went deep on the Giants’ best reliever during a bullpen game. Lou Seal’s parents must have been crushed.

Before Sunday’s game, many San Francisco Giants fans were unaware that mascot Lou Seal owned formal wear. Or that his full name was Luigi Francisco Seal. Or that he had parents.

Many fans also believed that All-Star Randy Rodriguez was immune to the long ball, having yielded only one dinger in 43 appearances before Sunday’s game. But in the 7th inning, Rodriguez (3-2) gave up home runs to Ronnie Mauricio and Juan Soto that gave the New York Mets a lead they’d never give up in their 5-3 win.

It’s not a shock that the spiraling Giants got swept for the second time since the All-Star break, especially in a game where the decimated pitching staff led to an all-reliever outing. The Mets had won six straight and the Giants had lost eight of their last ten. But the sheer weirdness of this loss stood out.

First, the whole game had festivities centered around Lou Seal’s induction into the Mascot Hall of Fame. Yes, Lou Seal made the Hall of Fame before Barry Bonds. So the Giants’ rotund pinniped mascot was feted with a red carpet, sparklers and a ceremonial first pitch, plus the introduction of his parents. As far as we can tell, the proud parents are a new addition to Lou Seal lore.

It also meant that after the fateful 7th inning, Lou Seal had to watch fellow Mascot Hall of Famer Mr. Met celebrate, with even Mr. Met’s nemesis the Philly Phanatic seeming to enjoy the power display.

Still, that may not have stung as much as seeing his mother canoodling with Lou’s predecessor, the Crazy Crab, during the Kiss Cam.

Can you blame that Crab? Mrs. Seal has blubber in all the right places.

What’s that? Talk about baseball? Matt Chapman accounted for all of the Giants’ scoring Sunday with two home runs, going deep on Mets starter Kodai Senga in the 4th and the 5th innings.

It was an all-or-nothing night for Chapman. Two home runs, three Ks, including a game-ending strikeout with the bases loaded, after Edwin Diaz hit Heliot Ramos and walked the next two hitters — but recovered to whiff Willy Adames and Chapman for his 23rd save.

Senga gave up three runs, four hits, and walked five in his five innings, but some clutch pitching and some inane base running got him out of trouble. With runners on first and third in the second inning, Senga struck out Patrick Bailey and Brett Wisely. In the third, Adames hit a slow roller to Mauricio at third that should have been an infield hit, except that Ramos ran halfway to third, stopped, and then was tagged out easily when he tried to sprint to the bag.

At this point, the mistakes from Ramos are piling up, and many of them don’t make any sense. Even S.J. Sharkie couldn’t believe that blunder.

After Senga departed, five Mets relievers combined to hold the Giants to just two hits, with Jose Butto (3-1) picking up the win with a perfect 6th inning. Both those hits came in the 8th inning, but Bailey lined out with two on and two out to end the threat.

Speaking of threats, Mauricio was unstoppable. When he wasn’t cruelly deceiving Ramos on defense, he was going 4-for-4 with two RBIs and two doubles, the first of which knocked in Francisco Alvarez for the Mets’ second run.

His second double set up the Mets’ 9th-inning insurance run before being lifted for pinch-runner Luisangel Acuña, who scored on Brandon Nimmo’s double.

In his three appearances since returning to the big-league roster, Hjelle has given up four runs and eight hits in three innings. In his last outing before being demoted in June, Hjelle gave up four runs and five hits in an inning. With Carson Whisenhunt scheduled to make his major league debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates Monday night, Hjelle is the obvious choice to go back to the River Cats.

In fact, the Giants may be looking at following up a bullpen game with a double-Carson game, as Carson Seymour hasn’t pitched since Tuesday in Atlanta. If filling the stadium with mascots didn’t get the Giants a win, why not go with a Whoops Only Carsons effort.

The trade deadline is Thursday. The Pirates are not good. The team has only a few days to convince Buster Posey and the powers that they should be adding players and not selling them off. Another series like this one might “Seal” the team’s fate.