Mets fans have plenty to be unhappy about these days and in Saturday’s 5-0 loss to the Padres, they directed most of their displeasure at Chris Young.
Young, so far a free-agent bust, struck out a career-high four times and heard it from the Citi Field crowd each time.
Though some players might say it didn’t affect them, Young admitted that was not the case.
“There’s a lot of negative energy coming my way,” Young said. “You’ve got to be professional and keep pushing, playing hard for this team and you hope that somehow you can turn that negative energy into positive energy, to support us and help us fight through this.”
Manager Terry Collins defended Young.
“Chris has worked very, very hard,” he said. “I know he’s very disappointed. He’s trying to make an impact and get himself going again.”
It will not be easy, especially because the Mets now having lost nine of 11 after another dismal effort on Saturday.
After a leadoff infield hit by Ruben Tejada in the first, the Mets didn’t get another hit until Lucas Duda’s single in the ninth.
Zack Wheeler (2-7) gave up four runs in five innings and with the way the Mets have been playing lately, the pair of runs he surrendered in the first may have been enough to dash their hopes.
“It’s not fun,’’ Wheeler said. “I didn’t have a comfortable rhythm out there.”
Wheeler said he thought he had opposing pitcher Jesse Hahn struck out in the fourth, but after not getting the call, the pitcher blooped a run-scoring single into right.
“I thought a lot of pitches should have been called strikes, even after I got done pitching,” Wheeler said. “It’s just one of those days. It was time after time of hitting balls where guys aren’t. It starts with me. I’ve got to get ahead of guys.”
After scoring six times in Friday night’s win, the Mets’ offense went silent again against Hahn, a high school teammate of Matt Harvey who was making his second major league start.
Nevertheless, the Mets had opportunities to score, particularly in the fourth.
David Wright was hit by a Hahn breaking ball to start the inning and Bobby Abreu walked before Duda and Young whiffed. Taylor Teagarden worked another walk to load the bases before Matt den Dekker struck out to end the threat.
“I pretty much have exhausted all the things I know of that work,” Collins said of their woes with the bases loaded.
Before the game, Wright said there are no easy fixes to what has been ailing the Mets lately. Because he has been through Mets’ seasons like this more times than he would want, he has become somewhat of an expert on how to deal with the current misery at Citi Field.
But he doesn’t plan on making any speeches or doing anything drastic.
“Team meetings are probably one of the more overrated things in sports,” Wright said. “You close the door and there’s already a negative tone. And a lot of times, it happens after a bad game and everybody is already upset. And then the same kind of stuff is said over and over again.”
Games like Saturday’s won’t help anything.
“We need to play better baseball,” he said. “It’s not about meetings or speeches or any of that stuff. We’ve played well for decent stretches this year and now we have to go out and do it again.”
They can’t afford to wait much longer.
“You show up [Sunday] and let it go,” Young said. “That’s all you can do.”