SAN FRANCISCO — It was just another night of brutal baseball for a struggling team on the verge of becoming irrelevant.
On a night the Mets were a mess defensively, running bases and leaving runners stranded, the Giants’ Michael Morse took them out of their misery with a game-ending RBI single against Jenrry Mejia in the ninth.
The Giants charged the field in celebration after a 5-4 victory at AT&T Park that extended the Mets’ losing streak to five games.
The Mets (28-34) closed the clubhouse before the game for a team meeting, but whatever words were spoken didn’t prevent them from leaving 12 runners stranded and committing two errors.
Manager Terry Collins, David Wright and Curtis Granderson all spoke during the short meeting, which Wright said revolved around blocking out negativity from the outside.
“It’s easy to play the ‘Woe is me’ card and get some negativity to creep up in here,” Wright said. “It wasn’t so much a meeting, but kind of reminding everybody we’re four or five games out of first place and … it’s not the end of the world and our best baseball is ahead of us.”
Mejia entered to protect a 4-3 lead in the ninth, but the inning went downhill fast. Angel Pagan was struck out to begin the inning, but strike three bounced pass Anthony Recker and the catcher’s throw to first drew Lucas Duda from the bag, allowing Pagan to reach base.
Hunter Pence followed with a game-tying double, and Morse won it with a shot to right after Pence had reached third on a fly out and Pablo Sandoval had been intentionally walked.
Jeurys Familia came on with two outs in the sixth, after the Giants had pulled within a run, and got the Mets to the ninth with their 4-3 lead intact. Mejia then blewa save for the first time in seven chances this season.
Familia retired seven straight batters after allowing an infield single to Pence upon entering in the sixth. It came after a shaky performance for Familia at Wrigley Field on Wednesday, in which he allowed a run on two hits and a walk over one-third of an inning.
Bartolo Colon went 5²/₃ innings for the Mets and allowed three runs, two of which were unearned, on eight hits, with four strikeouts and two walks.
Wright’s throwing error in the sixth helped the Giants climb back into the game with two unearned runs. Pagan slapped a two-run single that pulled the Giants within 4-3 before Familia entered and allowed an infield single to Pence that loaded the bases. Familia then got Buster Posey to chase ball four and strike out, ending the inning.
Matt den Dekker scored from third base on George Kontos’ wild pitch in the sixth, giving the Mets a 4-1 lead. But with Daniel Murphy on third and nobody out, Wright and Granderson struck out before Chris Young was retired.
Colon was in trouble in the fifth, when he loaded the bases with nobody out. But the right-hander got Posey to hit into a double play on a bad pitch, bringing home a run, before Sandoval was retired to end the inning.
Giants starter Tim Hudson, who entered with a major-league best 1.75 ERA, lasted just five innings and surrendered three earned runs on nine hits with three walks and five strikeouts.
The Mets scored twice in the third to take a 3-0 lead, but a base-running meltdown prevented them from possibly breaking open the game.
With the bases loaded and one out, Recker lofted a shot to right that hit the fence. But Young was slow moving from third base — he was signaled to tag up by coach Tim Teufel — causing a chain reaction. It concluded with Recker running to second and Ruben Tejada stuck in the middle, as third base was occupied by Lucas Duda. Tejada was tagged out and the ensuing batter, Colon, struck out to end the inning.
Duda’s RBI single earlier in the inning had given the Mets a 2-0 lead. Recker’s RBI single in the second brought in the game’s first run.