It was excusable when Jordan Zimmermann and Clayton Kershaw were frustrating the Mets earlier in the week, but then came Hyun-Jin Ryu and last night Kyle Kendrick. Who next to stifle the Mets, Steve Carlton and Dick Ruthven?
The lineup shuffle continued, with David Wright moving to the cleanup spot for the first time this season, but the Mets showed no punch in a 4-0 loss to the Phillies at Citi Field.
The Mets (10-11) have lost three of four games and fell below .500 for the first time in 2013. They have scored two runs or fewer in four of their last five games and are batting .173 over that stretch.
Kendrick (2-1) pitched a three-hit shutout, a day after the Mets managed only three hits over seven innings against the lefty Ryu.
Manager Terry Collins experimented with Mike Baxter in the leadoff spot, ahead of Ruben Tejada, Daniel Murphy and Wright. The idea was Wright thrived in the World Baseball Classic with runners on base ahead of him, and this lineup would give him a chance to replicate that success. But Kendrick had other ideas.
“He was sharp,” Murphy said. “I probably let him off the hook with some short at-bats tonight, but he threw the ball well.”
Ruben Tejada reached second base after delivering a single in the first inning, but no other Mets player advanced into scoring position. Kendrick retired 14 of the last 15 batters he faced.
“When he missed, he didn’t miss by much,” Collins said. “So you’ve got to enlarge your strike zone, especially when a guy is pounding the strike zone like that. It was a night where you’ve just got to say he pitched a great game and go get them [today].”
Ryan Howard’s three-run homer in the sixth put Dillon Gee in a 4-0 hole. The blast was Howard’s fourth in only 12 career at-bats against Gee. Michael Young’s RBI single moments earlier produced the game’s first run.
Gee (1-4) sailed into the sixth, but Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley singled in succession to begin the inning before Young singled and Howard unloaded to center.
“There are three balls I wish I could have back and it would be a different story,” Gee said. “If I can keep pitching like that and not have all those mistakes in one inning, I think I’ll be all right.”
Gee’s final line included four earned runs allowed on seven hits and one walk over six innings with four strikeouts. It was an improvement over his last start against the Phillies, two weeks ago at Citizens Bank Park, when he lasted only three innings.
Laynce Nix received a gift leadoff double in the third, when the right fielder Baxter lost the ball in the dusk, but Gee retired the next three batters to keep the game scoreless.
Collins indicated there’s no reason to sound the alarm because the Mets are below .500.
“When you talk to the players they are not naive, they know what’s going on,” Collins said. “They know they slipped below .500 tonight and that’s why we’ve got to pick it up [today] and come out and fight. But certainly I’m not going to hold a meeting and say, ‘OK, we’re under .500, we’ve got to pick it up.’ They know better than that.”