The Mets showed resolve last night, but grit and determination usually only take you so far against 17 hits.
Missed opportunities late against the Marlins and Hisanori Takahashi’s shaky major-league debut ultimately sent the Mets to a 7-6 loss in 10 innings at Citi Field.
Ronny Paulino’s pinch-hit RBI single against Takahashi scored the go-ahead run, putting the Marlins in position for the victory after squandering the five-run lead they had taken into the bottom of the seventh.
“You’ve got to look at the positive,” catcher Rod Barajas said. “That’s a game we had no business being in. It wasn’t our best game, but we found a way to stay in it.”
Takahashi, the Mets’ sixth pitcher of the game, allowed a leadoff single to Wes Helms in the 10th inning. Chris Coghlan’s sacrifice moved Helms to second before Paulino’s RBI single put the Marlins ahead.
The Mets had a shot to win in the ninth, but Marlins closer Leo Nunez retired Gary Matthews Jr. with David Wright at second base. Wright had walked with one out and stole second with Jason Bay at the plate — the Marlins responded by intentionally walking Bay to get to Matthews.
Bay and manager Jerry Manuel defended Wright’s decision to steal second.
“You would still rather have a guy on second and give somebody a shot to get a single and score him,” Bay said.
The Mets made their charge in the eighth, scoring three runs to make it 6-6, after a Fernando Tatis base-running blunder an inning earlier had snuffed a potential go-ahead rally.
The tying run scored on a Nunez balk with the bases loaded — Matthews broke toward home, disrupting the right-hander’s motion. Tatis had walked with the bases loaded to bring the Mets within 6-5 after an earlier run scored in the inning when second baseman Dan Uggla threw the ball away attempting to complete a double play.
It was Tatis who helped kill a Mets rally in the seventh by getting thrown out at the plate while attempting to score from third on a ball that eluded catcher John Baker.
Jose Veras covered the plate and tagged out Tatis, after the Mets had loaded the bases and brought Wright to the plate as the go-ahead run. Wright never got to take a swing, as Veras’ first pitch skidded off Baker’s glove, and the 35-year-old Tatis got tagged out by the pitcher to end the inning.
“[Tatis] just misread it,” Manuel said.
John Maine got knocked around early, and the Mets’ bullpen scuffled before getting the trusted twosome of Pedro Feliciano and Francisco Rodriguez into the game.
Jenrry Mejia, the 20-year-old fireballer who wowed the Mets in spring training to earn a bullpen job, surrendered three hits and a run in the sixth before Sean Green allowed a solo homer to Uggla in the seventh.
It came on a night the Mets had trouble against Marlins starter Ricky Nolasco before making late headway. The right-hander allowed three earned runs on three hits and three walks over 6 2/3 innings before the Marlins’ bullpen imploded.
Maine struggled with his command early and never recovered, surrendering four earned runs on eight hits and one walk over five innings.
“You can look at it as a disheartening loss,” Manuel said. “But at the same time you have to look at the fight the team put up.”