NEW YORK -- Before Sunday’s game, Rockies manager Bud Black said he would like to see his team’s pitching improve, beginning with his starters going deeper into games.

That didn’t happen against the Mets on Sunday afternoon at Citi Field, as the Rockies fell, 6-1. Right-hander Jeff Hoffman had a game he would like to forget, lasting just 4 2/3 innings while allowing six runs on seven hits.

Hoffman was in trouble starting in the first inning, when Todd Frazier hit a three-run homer to give the Mets a 3-0 lead.

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“I don’t think I executed enough pitches in that first inning. A couple of bad misses. Obviously, you saw the results,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman settled down some after the homer, retiring the next 10 hitters he faced. But he had problems getting that elusive third out in the fourth, when Adeiny Hechavarria singled, stole second base and scored on a single by Carlos Gomez.

Hoffman was out of the game in the fifth after he allowed an RBI triple to J.D. Davis, also with two outs.

The 26-year-old right-hander is still looking for his first quality start of the season, but he knows what he has to do to be consistent on the mound.

“It’s just going out and stringing together as many pitches in a row as possible,” Hoffman said. “When you do that, I think you’ll see the team trending in an upward fashion. This one is on me. I didn’t get off to a great start. Maybe if I threw up a zero in that first inning, things would be different. But I started slow and maybe some of it rubbed off on the offense.”

From afar, Mets manager Mickey Callaway sees a lot of potential in Hoffman.

“I tell you what, he did a good job of throwing more [curveballs],” Callaway said. “He started leading us off with it. He’s got a good curveball. He actually made a pretty good adjustment to try and keep us at bay. We adjusted back and ended up getting him out of the game and getting the game to where we wanted to, but he’s got a great curveball, and I kind of liked his delivery. You like the build of the kid.”

Hoffman’s counterpart, right-hander Noah Syndergaard, was dealing against one of the best offenses in the Major Leagues. He held the Rockies scoreless for seven innings and struck out seven, giving up just one hit.

“He pitched well. He had his pitches working today,” Black said. “From the side, it looked like he was commanding his fastball pretty well -- top of the zone and down. He mixed in the breaking ball as the game went on. He really pitched.”

The Rockies ended the road trip 2-4, in large part because they didn’t get the quality starting pitching they were looking for.

“We had a couple of tough games in Chicago. They were close games. They could have gone either way,” Black said. “Yesterday, the game was in the balance for most of the game. Today, Syndergaard shut us down. I like the fact that we are in games with the exception of today, and that’s a good thing.”