ATLANTA — One ugly game can be dismissed as a blip, but the Mets have to hope two straight doesn’t signal the start of a trend.
As badly as Johan Santana performed in his start a day earlier, R.A. Dickey was even worse yesterday as he struggled with his knuckleball in the rain, leaving the Mets in less than 24 hours to go from Chipper to Jonesing.
Dickey’s worst start in four years buried the Mets in a 14-6 loss to the Braves at Turner Field, completing a 3-3 road trip.
Just to ensure he isn’t forgotten, old nemesis Chipper Jones slammed a pinch-hit RBI double in the sixth against Bobby Parnell — a play initially ruled an error on Jason Bay as he butchered the ball near the wall — as part of the Braves’ 16-hit attack. Juan Francisco, Dan Uggla and Freddie Freeman all homered against Dickey.
“It’s like throwing water balloons — imagine a wet water balloon,” Dickey said after surrendering eight earned runs on eight hits and two walks over 41/3 innings. “It’s hard to get the feel of it just right [in the rain]. But I was getting dry balls, too, and throwing poor knuckleballs. So it wasn’t just the weather, it was poorly executed pitches, too.”
Santana lasted only 1 1/3 innings, allowing four earned runs, in Tuesday’s 9-3 loss to the Braves for the shortest start of his career. The idea of Santana and Dickey flopping on consecutive days is unsettling for the Mets, but manager Terry Collins said there is no cause for alarm.
“You don’t ever expect that, and I would have to say I doubt we’ll see it again,” Collins said, referring to the consecutive stinkers by his Nos. 1 and 2 in the rotation.
Dickey hadn’t allowed eight runs in a start since Aug. 8, 2008, when he surrendered that many over two innings while pitching for the Mariners against the White Sox. The veteran righty said he may have to rethink his approach when pitching in the rain and perhaps throw fewer knuckleballs.
“I have other stuff in my arsenal that I can go to,” Dickey said. “So maybe identifying when the conditions are so poor that you just can’t throw a good knuckleball and go to the other stuff until it lightens up a little bit.”
David Wright’s run-scoring single in the fifth was his 733rd career RBI, tying him with Darryl Strawberry for first on the Mets’ all-time list in that category. Wright, who finished with three RBIs, had a chance to move ahead of Strawberry when he came up with runners on the corners in the seventh, but struck out. It was hardly the Mets’ only wasted opportunity on a day they stranded 11 runners and had two more thrown out at the plate.
Kirk Nieuwenhuis went 3-for-4 from the leadoff spot with a stolen base for the Mets. It came a day after Collins indicated that one reason the organization still has plans for Andres Torres as the center fielder is because of his stolen-base potential.
Ike Davis’ third home run in four games, a solo blast in the second, put the Mets up 1-0. Wright’s two-run double in the third gave the Mets a 3-2 lead, but the Braves seized control with four runs in the bottom of the inning, highlighted by Uggla’s two-run homer.
The Mets (7-5) now prepare for seven games at Citi Field against the Giants and Marlins beginning tomorrow night.
“Any time you will take .500 on the road,” said Collins, whose Mets won two games in Philadelphia over the weekend. “But because we got started on the trip so well it’s a little disappointing the way it ended the last two days.”
mpuma@nypost.com