DENVER — Just when it looked like the Mets would finally have their two dominant aces to lead the rotation, the Colorado Rockies rocked Justin Verlander. One night after Max Scherzer gave the Mets seven strong innings, Verlander gave up five in the second inning alone.

The Mets clawed back from a 6-0 deficit and Verlander was rewarded when Francisco Alvarez launched an absolute moonshot of a home run in the sixth to tie the game at 6-6 and the Mets took a lead in the seventh. But the rally fell short and the Mets lost 10-7 in the second game of a three-game series on Saturday at Coors Field.

A two-run homer by Ryan McMahon in the bottom of the seventh and two insurance runs in the eighth by the Rockies (23-30) secured the win.

“I was really proud of the way we fought back in that game and the way Justin gave us five innings,” said manager Buck Showalter. “You can come in here and lose a lot of bullpen pieces very quickly. That’s a really good testament to Justin to be able to give us those innings. It didn’t look like it was going to happen early on.”

Verlander gave up six runs over the first three innings, with five coming in the second alone. His pitches didn’t break the way he wanted to and he couldn’t locate, but he refused to blame the Coors Field altitude. He ended up going five, but he still put the Mets in an early 6-0 hole.

Pete Alonso hit his league-leading 20th home run in the fourth off Rockies’ starter Chase Anderson in the fourth and Jeff McNeil sparked the comeback with a leadoff single off reliever Brent Suter in the sixth. Two batters later, Brett Baty doubled him home. Alonso scored the third run on an RBI groundout by Starling Marte to cut the Colorado lead in half.

Then came the theatrics.

With two on and two out, the Rockies changed pitchers, going to right-hander Jake Bird. Alvarez fell behind in the count 2-1, but Bird hung a curveball over the fat part of the plate and the rookie catcher drove it 435 feet to tie the game at 6-6.

“I’m just looking for my pitch to put the best swing possible there,” Alvarez said through a translator.

The Mets pushed one across the plate in the seventh but McMahon then gave the Rockies back the lead with a towering two-run shot of his own off right-hander Jeff Brigham (0-1).

“I felt like I threw my best pitch in a decent spot,” Brigham said. “I thought McMahon put a good swing on it.”

The Mets used Brigham and Drew Smith instead of Brooks Raley and Adam Ottavino, who weren’t available after having both pitched Friday night. Ottavino had worked on back-to-back nights.

Smith has now given up at least one run in each of his last four appearances and he might be falling out of favor as a late-inning, high-leverage arm. Brigham hadn’t allowed a run in three games and had been even better on the road to that point, having gone 8 and 1 /3 innings without a run away from Citi Field. The Mets rewarded him with a high-leverage inning.

“The game is a little bit more on the line,” he said. “When you make a mistake and they punish it, then it shows up a little bit more in the box score.”

The Mets couldn’t punch back this time.

Justin Lawrence quieted the Mets’ bats over 1 and 1 /3 and Pierce Johnson converted the save. McNeil, Alonso and Baty couldn’t come through a second time.

There were no signs of trouble for Verlander after an eight-pitch first inning. He struck out McMahon to start the second, but he would face six more batters before finally getting the second out. The Rockies took three straight singles and a double off of him before he walked No. 9 hitter Ezequiel Tovar and gave up another double to leadoff man Charlie Blackmon.

A sacrifice fly and a fantastic catch by Marte finally ended the inning, but the damage was done: The Mets were down 5-0.

“The first inning was kind of how I would have scripted it,” Verlander said. “I didn’t throw any off-speed pitches, if any — I don’t think I threw any — and I got a few out. Those guys hadn’t seen all my pitches, so [I thought] hopefully the next time around, I could get them out in a different way. But the second inning just kind of started off good, and then I mean, just a couple of tough ones.

“If all the ones in play that are soft find holes and the hard ones are doubles in one inning, it’s going to be tough.”

Stephen Nogosek got up in the bullpen but Verlander came back out for the third. Colorado tacked on one more. The total was six runs on nine hits and one walk and two strikeouts.

Verlander salvaged a wild start and it was just as wild after his exit.

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