TURNER FOR THE WORSE: Justin Turner writhes in pain after spraining his right ankle when he was caught in a rundown against the Phillies. Turner will go on the DL. (Getty Images)
Call it Curse of the Shortstop.
The Mets still have their demons as yesterday’s 8-4 Memorial Day loss to the Phillies demonstrated, a game in which third baseman David Wright played the last six innings at shortstop.
“We’re thin at shortstop if I’m playing there,’’ said Wright, who is hitless in his last 14 at-bats, and will be back at third tonight.
Justin Turner, starting at short for the injured Ronny Cedeno (calf), who was starting for the injured Ruben Tejada (quadriceps), who was given the shortstop position when Jose Reyes jumped ship to the Marlins, (and, of course, Reyes had more than his share of leg problems at short for the Mets), sprained his right ankle after getting caught in a run-down in the third inning.
Hello, Omar Quintanilla, who is hitting .138 over 80 major league at-bats since 2008. These are desperate times at shortstop for the Mets.
The injury was painful to Turner, who went down in agony and had to be helped off the field, and the Mets, who really went down in flames at Citi Field as reliever Manny Acosta again played the role of batting practice pitcher in the ninth.
This is a team running on fumes.
“We’re getting tired,’’ Terry Collins said, looking ahead to Thursday’s off day.
And they’re shorthanded, especially at shortstop during a vital eight-series stretch.
The hope is Cedeno is ready soon and Tejada can return by the weekend. Turner will be put on the DL.
Wright played short for two innings last year in an emergency and before that, you have to go all the way back to his high school days to find him at shortstop.
In the seventh with the game tied 4-4, and Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins moving from first on a hit-and-run, Placido Polanco hit the ball back to Bobby Parnell. Parnell threw to Wright at second, but Wright, believing Rollins would beat the throw, was pointing to first and moved up to get the throw so he could fire to first for the out.
Ty Wigginton, who began his career as a Met, lined a two-out single that scored Rollins to snap the tie. Wigginton capped his day with a three-run home run in the ninth off Acosta, who has surrendered six home runs in 22 innings and carries an 11.86 ERA. Goodbye, Manny.
It’s not just that Mets shortstops get injured. It’s how they are injured that is so haunting.
Turner is the second shortstop to be injured running the bases. He lined a two-out single to right with catcher Rob Johnson at second in the third. The Mets were trailing 2-0 and third base coach Tim Teufel elected to hold up Johnson as he came around the bag. Turner rounded first and was caught in a rundown. Rollins ran Turner back to first and as Turner made an awkward lunge for first, he appeared to injure his left leg but actually jammed his right ankle.
X-rays were negative, but, “sometimes sprains are worse than breaks,’’ Collins said.
Collins said he first thought Turner tore his Achilles tendon.
Tejada was injured May 6 running to first. He strained his right quadriceps as he fell and did a face plant. He is swinging a bat in Port St. Lucie, but is not running at full speed. As for Cedeno, he managed to strain his left calf taking a swing and he felt pain stretching during warm-ups yesterday, so he was held out once again. Collins said could have used him as a pinch-hitter but would have had to use a pitcher as a pinch-runner for him. Not good.
On a team of role players, Turner is a most valuable role player, so now the Mets are down to a fourth-string shortstop in Quintanilla, who has played 11 major league games since 2009.
Turner is a tough loss because he can play every position in the infield and was hitting .538 over the last five games.
“He’s been a big contributor, it’s tough to lose a guy like that,’’ Wright said.
The Mets’ Curse of the Shortstop has struck again.
kevin.kernan@nypost.com