MIAMI — Frankly, it was a disaster.
Just when the Mets appeared ready to further crystallize their identity as baseball’s comeback kings, Frank Francisco walked to the mound last night and lobbed a grenade on his team’s winning streak.
The erratic closer was in trouble from the start of the ninth inning until he threw his final pitch — after which the Marlins celebrated near second base following Greg Dobbs’ broken-bat single that handed the Mets a 6-5 loss before 31,007 at Marlins Park.
“I feel bad because we lost, but personally I know I was fighting out there,” Francisco said after the Mets’ winning streak was snapped at five. “I left everything I have out there for my team and we lost, but I don’t feel bad [personally].”
Francisco (1-2) remains the weak link in a rebuilt Mets bullpen. The veteran right-hander has allowed an alarming 24 base runners in 13 2/3 innings this season and put a scare into the Mets on several occasions. Last night’s blown save was his second in 10 chances this season.
“It was one of those nights where we just didn’t pitch late in the game, which we had been doing lately,” manager Terry Collins said.
After the Mets scored three runs in the eighth to take a 5-3 lead, Ike Davis’ error on Jose Reyes’ grounder in the bottom of the inning led to Miami scoring an unearned run against Bobby Parnell.
Francisco surrendered a leadoff double to Giancarlo Stanton in the ninth before Emilio Bonifacio delivered an RBI single with one out to tie the game. Bonifacio stole second, and with two outs Dobbs won the game with a jam-shot single.
“I was fighting out there with everything I have,” Francisco said. “After the first hitter, I got the next guy out and then they tied the game and I got the next guy out. I was fighting.”
Davis, who hit a solo home run in the fifth, took blame for not handling Reyes’ grounder in the eighth. Omar Infante’s RBI double followed.
“I just should have gotten in front of it and knocked it down,” Davis said. “It took a higher bounce than the one before and I got it a little bit on the wrist and I missed it.”
The Mets seemed headed toward a major league-leading 12th comeback victory when they batted around in the eighth and scored three runs against relievers Edward Mujica and Ryan Webb to go ahead 5-3. Mike Baxter’s pinch-hit, two-run double gave the Mets their first lead after Kirk Nieuwenhuis had tied the game with a pinch-hit RBI double earlier in the inning.
Johan Santana allowed three runs in the first inning and then blanked the Marlins through the next five innings. His final line included six hits allowed with seven strikeouts and no walks.
Andres Torres misjudged Reyes’ first-inning drive to center into a triple, and the Marlins took a 1-0 lead on Infante’s single. Austin Kearns homered on a full-count pitch later in the inning to give Miami a three-run cushion.
“I tried to come in on Kearns and he went up,” Santana said. “Just one mistake and everything changed.
“I made my adjustments. We attacked them, mixed all my pitches, but they took advantage at the beginning of the game.”