The more desperate the Mets get for Ike Davis to break out of his funk, the deeper he sinks. And last night — after stranding the bases loaded in the first and striking out twice after that, booed louder and louder each time — the question isn’t how much worse can Davis get, but how long can the Mets afford to play him?
The Mets lost, 4-3, to the Reds last night in a game that was eminently winnable. Starter Shaun Marcum was solid by his standards, and the Mets had their chances to score. But they just couldn’t come up with a big hit, and nobody was more culpable — or more maddening — than Davis.
Marcum (0-5) allowed six hits and four runs in six innings to take the loss, but in reality the greater concern was Davis. He’s now in a 1-for-33 slump, his average is down to .152 and his rope presumably is growing shorter by the strikeout. He struck out twice last night, with the Citi Field crowd of 23,038 booing him vociferously before he was double-switched in the seventh.
“I told Ike [last week] we’re going to put you in the four hole. We’ve got a whole string of right-handed pitchers coming up, hopefully we can get you going,” manager Terry Collins said. “He didn’t have a real good week.
“He’s still here, we still need to play him, so I took him out of the four spot because Lucas [Duda] is swinging the bat real good. … I thought I’d take Ike out of the four spot, keep him in the lineup because we are going to get three righties here, and maybe this is the series he gets it going.”
It didn’t happen against Johnny Cueto in the opener, and seems farther away than ever. Davis has a WAR — wins above replacement, a statistic that measures a players’ value to his team — of -0.8. That’s the fourth-worst figure out of 468 players in the National League.
Marcum didn’t pitch poorly last night, with only one rocky inning, the first — and Davis even had a hand in that. With one on and one out, Joey Votto lined a ball into right field and as he rounded first Davis, seemingly oblivious to his surroundings, was called for obstruction on the runner. Even though Marlon Byrd made a nice play to throw out Votto at second, the call left runners safe at second and third.
Brandon Phillips plated them both, stroking a two-run single to right-center to give the Reds a 2-0 lead. Jay Bruce’s RBI double to right-center made it 3-0. The crowd gave Marcum a sarcastic cheer when he finally escaped the first, but he did settle in to retire 10 straight.
The Mets loaded the bases with two out in the first off Cueto (2-0), activated off the disabled list for his first start in more than a month. But Davis grounded out to second to end the threat.
They did get back into the game in the third, Collins started Byrd because of his solid 6-for-11 career numbers against Cueto and Byrd repaying him by slamming the first pitch he saw that inning for a three-run homer to left to tie the game.
But Bruce untied it in the sixth. Marcum hung his first pitch right over the plate, and Bruce clubbed his 79 mph changeup down the right field line for his third home run in the last four games, and a 4-3 lead.
In the bottom of the inning, Davis came up and struck out again. Collins eventually removed him in a double-switch that left Justin Turner at first. It was essentially Collins’ last act of the night because he was ejected along with reliever LaTroy Hawkins by home plate umpire Ton Hallion in the top of the seventh.
The Mets hadn’t been overjoyed with the strike zone all night, but after Hallion awarded Phillips first base on a pitch that replays clearly showed went off the knob of his bat, Collins argued with Hallion for a couple of minutes and got ejected. Hawkins briefly jawed at Hallion coming off the mound and immediately got tossed as well.
brian.lewis@nypost.com