CHICAGO — For a night, Jupiter and Mars aligned, allowing Shaun Marcum to receive credit for an honest night’s work.
After nine straight losses to start the season, the veteran right-hander finally broke into the win column, firing eight shutout innings for the Mets in their 3-0 victory over the White Sox Wednesday night at U.S. Cellular Field.
Marcum (1-9) deserved this one, pitching his best game of the season after consecutive clunkers had put his spot in the rotation in jeopardy. That was until Jon Niese hit the disabled list last week with a partially torn rotator cuff, leaving the Mets without a starting pitcher to spare.
The Mets (31-43) did all their damage against John Danks in the fifth inning, scoring three runs — two of which were unearned — to win for the fourth time in six games.
Marcum allowed four hits and did not walk a batter over 96 pitches. Anthony Young (0-13 in 1993) and Bob Miller (0-12 in 1962) are the only pitchers in franchise history that lost more consecutive games without a win to begin a season than Marcum.
Alexei Ramirez’s error was the pivotal play in a three-run fifth inning for the Mets. With runners on second and third following Josh Satin and Andrew Brown singles, Juan Lagares hit a grounder that rolled under the shortstop Ramirez’s glove, allowing both runners to score. Then, with two outs, Eric Young Jr. singled off third baseman Brent Morel’s glove to make it 3-0.
The sloppy play by the White Sox didn’t rub off on the Mets. In the fifth, Daniel Murphy made a barehand grab on Omar Quintanilla’s throw to second and fired to first, where Satin applied the tag on Gordon Beckham’s leg to complete a double play. The next batter, Tyler Flowers, hit a grounder deep into the shortstop hole that Quintanilla grabbed before making a strong throw to first, ending the inning.
Before the game, catcher John Buck admitted he was angry that manager Terry Collins pulled him for a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning the previous night. Buck last night had another game to forget, going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts.
“If you’re happy about getting pinch-hit for, then you’ve got a problem, in my opinion,” Buck said. “What you saw [Tuesday] had nothing to do with my personal average or anything at all. It was everything with the game.”
Buck is now hitting .210 with 12 homers and 36 RBIs. Since May 5, he had pulled an almost complete disappearing act, batting .180 with seven RBIs.
So when the Mets put the tying run at second base in the ninth inning on Tuesday with two outs, Collins gambled on the more productive bat. Murphy entered as the pinch-hitter against closer Addison Reed and hit a pop up that should have ended the game, but the ball landed near the pitcher’s mound as three players converged and nobody took charge. Beckham was charged with an error on the play that allowed David Wright to score the tying run.
“I don’t have any problem with players being upset when coming out of a game, none whatsoever, and I don’t blame [Buck],” Collins said. “But I certainly didn’t want to have a guy who I think is certainly one of the top two hitters on the team sitting on the bench when the game is over with the tying run at second base.
“I told John at the time, ‘If there is one out you will hit. If there is two outs, I’ve got to get Murph up there.’ I don’t expect [Buck] to like it, I’m fine with it, I have no issues with him. But I had to make that decision, so I went with Murph.”
mpuma@nypost.com