When an energy source is operating at 60 percent of capacity, that’s what’s known as a brownout.
When Jose Reyes, the Mets’ energy source, is permitted to play at 60 percent of his unique capacities, that’s what’s known as a mistake.
We know that the Mets learned from their history last year in order not to repeat it, and we know that the front office decision-makers have taken the appropriately conservative route with Carlos Beltran, who will join the team in San Francisco following the All-Star break.
So it’s baffling, just baffling, that the Mets would have allowed Reyes to play through a strained right oblique compromised to the extent that the switch-hitting shortstop had to bat from the right side against righties this week even as he was grimacing and wincing after nearly every play on which he was forced to extend himself even a little.
We’d report that Reyes is hurting again except the fact is that he’s never stopped hurting after straining his oblique during batting practice in Florida on June 30 and was sidelined for six games.
Despite the pain and the compromises necessary to get him back into the lineup, the Mets let him play through four straight games until the issues became impossible to ignore in the seventh inning of yesterday’s 4-0 defeat to the Braves.
Actually, the issues were ignored by everyone other than David Wright, Reyes’ longtime neighbor who called manager Jerry Manuel out of the dugout after the shortstop had gone into the hole to gun down Troy Glaus leading off the inning.
Manuel reluctantly made the walk to the infield, trying to avoid flashbacks to last season, when the Mets pushed Reyes to play despite an early-season hamstring pull. This time, the Mets didn’t push Reyes into anything. He jumped headfirst.
“I try to play the game I have that day even though I’m not 100 percent,” said Reyes, who will not play in today’s series finale and has been pulled from the NL’s active roster for Tuesday’s All-Star Game. “I do it the right way and do everything I can to help this team.
“I’m trying.”
Reyes is trying so hard he even tried to talk Manuel into allowing him to remain in the game after the manager took the walk to the infield.
But at 0-for-3 yesterday, Reyes was 2-for-13 this week going right against right, which obviously equals a wrong. He couldn’t run. His infectious smile became a troubled grimace. It’s anybody’s guess why the Mets believed it necessary to get him back into the lineup when he could not do those things that stamp him as unique, especially with the manager insisting he wouldn’t have done it differently even if he could.
Still, Reyes would not second-guess either his desire to play or the Mets’ decision to accommodate him on this miserable homestand in which his team has looked feeble at the plate and unarmed on the mound.
“It’s been bothering me with everything I do, and I have been playing with pain, but it was not a mistake for me to be out there because I felt that I could play and help even less than 100 percent,” he said. “Now I will try to back off and get a little rest.”
It’s all caving on in on the Mets. Mike Pelfrey, who retired only 12 of the 25 batters he faced before exiting in the fifth, has allowed 22 runs on 46 hits in 26 1/3 innings over his last five starts. Jason Bay, 0-for-3 yesterday, is 0-for-10 the last three games, 7-for-39 his last 11 and hearing the Bay Birds on every at-bat. Ike Davis, also 0-for-3, is 8-for-45 the last 12 games. The team is 1-for-32 with runners in scoring position over the last four games.
And the Mets, 1-4 on the homestand and 8-12 in their last 20 overall beginning June 19, are experiencing a brownout.
larry.brooks@nypost.com