MIAMI — Here’s a bigger problem for the Mets than the fact their pitchers can’t hit: Neither can their hitters.
The Marlins have a young, rising rotation, but this good? It has gotten to the point if the Mets score a run on Friday at Citi Field against the Phillies, a blast of the “Hallelujah Chorus” will be appropriate.
Make it 23 straight scoreless innings for the Mets and counting with Wednesday’s 1-0 loss at Marlins Park that completed a three-game Miami sweep.
“This is where we’ve gotten ourselves in trouble in the past,” David Wright said after the Mets completed a 2-6 road trip. “We allow these things to kind of stretch out over a couple of weeks instead of a series here and there. Hopefully the difference between this year and the last couple of years is when we go in these little slides we stop it at a series or two series rather than let it carry over and turn it into a couple-of-week thing.”
Wednesday’s game fell into the winnable category for the Mets (16-17), with Zack Wheeler pitching six scoreless innings. But New Rochelle native Tom Koehler was even better for the Marlins, with eight shutout innings, allowing two hits.
Giancarlo Stanton raced home from third on Marcell Ozuna’s sacrifice fly against Kyle Farnsworth in the ninth, giving the Mets a third walk-off loss in their past five games. It was also the Mets’ seventh walk-off loss in the 22 games they have played in this ballpark since it opened in 2012.
Mets pitchers are 0-for-58 at the plate to begin the season, and lately some of the hitters haven’t been much better. It has left manager Terry Collins searching to the heavens for answers.
“If there was an answer, somebody would be the greatest hitting coach in the history of the game,” Collins said.
Wright’s double in the second and Lucas Duda’s single leading off the eighth accounted for the Mets’ hits. Koehler (4-2) retired 18 straight batters beginning with two outs in the first inning and extending to the seventh, when he walked Curtis Granderson.
Koehler’s dominance came a day after Henderson Alvarez pitched a complete-game shutout for the Marlins.
“You’ve got guys throwing 95 [mph], with secondary pitches they are throwing for strikes, and that makes for a long day,” Wright said.
Wheeler allowed two hits, struck out seven and walked five. He became the second Mets starting pitcher in three days, joining Jon Niese, to receive a no-decision despite not allowing a run.
Carlos Torres allowed a single to Stanton leading off the ninth and Casey McGehee walked. After Stanton took third on a Garrett Jones fly out, Ozuna hit a ball to medium center that Juan Lagares caught and unloaded toward the plate. Anthony Recker, in a rush to apply the tag on Stanton sliding, couldn’t hold onto Lagares’ throw.
“Looking at the replay, I don’t know if I would have gotten him, anyway,” Recker said. “It looks like he might have gotten in.”
Duda was left stranded at second in the eighth, as Koehler struck out pinch hitters Bobby Abreu and Josh Satin in succession. Duda had singled leading off the inning and went to second on Recker’s sacrifice bunt.
The Mets had four starters hit above .300 on the road trip: Chris Young (.364), Daniel Murphy (.361), Juan Lagares (.321) and Curtis Granderson (.310), but it wasn’t enough to compensate for vacancies at the bottom of the lineup, where Travis d’Arnaud, Ruben Tejada and the pitchers continue to struggle. The Mets also have just 20 homers, tied for 14th in the NL entering Wednesday.
“We just have to keep working through it, trust the process and keep working,” hitting coach Dave Hudgens said. “There are no real secrets in it. This ballpark, with their pitching and we’re not locked in, that combination pretty much took care of us.”