WASHINGTON — Just in case the Mets had not lost enough players in August, Ike Davis capped off the month by exiting last night’s game after clutching his right side and could be headed to an early offseason.
On a night Zack Wheeler cruised against the Nationals, allowing two runs over 6 2/3 innings in an 11-3 victory, the Mets lost Davis to a strained right oblique, an injury that typically carries a recovery time of 3-4 weeks.
Davis sustained the injury on a swing against Dan Haren in the third inning that resulted in a sacrifice fly. He was replaced at first base in the bottom of the frame by Lucas Duda.
“It’s horrible,” Davis said. “I just started playing a little better, starting to feel confident again, and it [stinks] because I don’t know if I can get back to play the games this year. But at least I was starting to play better, and stuff like this happens.”
Wheeler (7-3) received an eight-run cushion early and didn’t show any letdown until the sixth, when the Nationals scored twice against him. The rookie right-hander, who figures to receive four more starts before reaching an innings limit in the 180 range, improved to 5-0 on the road.
Davis joined David Wright, Matt Harvey, Bobby Parnell, Jeremy Hefner and Jenrry Mejia among the team’s recent casualties.
Asked by The Post before last night’s game to grade his performance since returning from Triple-A Las Vegas on July 5, Davis gave himself a “C-plus/B-minus” and said he hadn’t lost faith his power would return.
Davis is batting .267 with a .433 on-base percentage since rejoining the team, but has just four homers and 17 RBIs over that 48-game stretch. In his first two-plus months, before the demotion, he hit .161 with five homers and 16 RBIs.
“I feel terrible for Ike,” manager Terry Collins said. “He went to the minor leagues, worked very hard on some things, came back and we were starting to see some signs, and 2013 is going to go down as a real frustrating year for Ike Davis.”
Still unclear is whether Davis will wear a Mets uniform beyond this year, as team brass mulls whether it should commit to a player who has been mostly a disappointment the past two seasons. Davis, who is arbitration eligible, is earning $3.1 million this year.
Internally, the club has first-base candidates in Duda, Wilmer Flores and Josh Satin or could look to upgrade at the position this offseason. But the Mets have other positions to address — most notably the outfield — and would prefer not to have to allocate resources toward first base.
In the short term, Collins said he will play Duda and Satin at first base and won’t consider Flores for the position until Wright potentially returns from the DL to reclaim third base. Davis is expected to return to New York on Tuesday for an MRI exam that will reveal the extent of his strain.
Davis said he had battled tightness in the oblique in recent months, but the soreness disappeared about a week ago. Before last night’s setback, he already had formed an opinion on his 2013 season.
“This year, it was a bad year,” Davis said. “It was a bad start, a real bad start, and I put myself in a major hole. I’m not going to sit here and count this season as anything to do with my normal career. I was in a funk I couldn’t get out of and I don’t want that to happen again and I’m going to work hard so it doesn’t.”
The Mets broke the game open in the third inning, sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring six runs to grab an 8-0 lead. Included was Matt den Dekker’s first major league hit, an RBI single that ended Haren’s night.
Haren lasted 2 2/3 innings and allowed seven earned runs on nine hits for his second loss to the Mets in three starts this season.
Wheeler allowed a two-out infield single to Tanner Roark in the third for the Nationals’ first hit. Denard Span followed with a single, but the Nationals didn’t get another hit until Span singled in the sixth to start a rally that resulted in two runs.
“My [velocity] is not up, so obviously I’m a little tired,” Wheeler said. “But once you get out there and get going you don’t know about it.”