Larry Brooks

Larry Brooks

MLB

Wright slumps at wrong time for thrifty Mets

This was enfeeblement of historic proportions in Queens, the Mets two-hit by the Giants for the second time in three games, losing Sunday afternoon to Madison Bumgarner by the wholly appropriate 9-0 forfeit score after having been overmatched by Ryan Vogelsong in Friday night’s 5-1 takedown.

It is the third time in franchise history the Mets have been the victims of two-hit (or better) complete games in the same series, the first time in 49 years, and both of the other times, Sandy Koufax was one of the parties of other part, first joined by Don Drysdale in 1963 and then by Claude Osteen in 1965, so at least then there was a decent enough excuse.

This time, not so much.

It figured to be difficult for the Mets against Bumgarner with manager Terry Collins giving lefties Daniel Murphy and Lucas Duda — the club’s hottest and most dangerous hitters — the day off against one of the league’s most accomplished left-handers. It in fact became a mismatch, with Wilmer Flores’ third-inning double to left and David Wright’s broken-bat seventh-inning single to right the only New York hits on an afternoon which the Giants routed Bartolo Colon and altogether pounded four home runs.

“It’s tough when you run into a buzz saw like that,” Wright said. “You know that good pitching is going to prevail when it’s on, and Madison was on.”

The Mets have eight hits through the first three games of this series, four of them in the seventh inning of Saturday night’s 4-2 victory. So four runs on four hits in that one at-bat for the home team and one run on four hits in the other 25 ups against San Francisco. That’s hard to do.

“I’ve got to get going,” Wright said. “We have a few guys who have to get going.”

Curtis Granderson, 0-for-3 against Bumgarner, is 9-for-53 since the All-Star break, his .179 average (with one home run and one RBI) second-worst in the league to Atlanta’s Andrelton Simmons (.148) among players with at least 50 at-bats.

Wright’s .186 (11-for-59, 0 HR, 4 RBI) off Sunday’s 1-for-3 is third-worst since the break. And then there’s Chris Young, the overall .204 square peg off yet another 0-for-3 who Collins keeps trying to pound into that left-field round and deep hole.

In other words, a lot of pitchers have been on lately against Wright and Granderson, and an awful lot of pitchers have been on all year against Young.

Wright’s descent into a deep freeze has raised questions about his health, and specifically whether the franchise third-baseman’s left shoulder that he injured in early June has become an issue. Three times — no, four times — Wright swatted the question away with more authority than he’s shown at the plate.

“I’m fine,” he said, once, twice and then twice more. “I’m fine.”

Wright’s numbers are off pretty much across the board this season. His power numbers have tapered off in the years since the move across the parking lot from Shea. It may never be 2008 again for the third baseman, when he hit 32 homers and knocked in 124 runs with a .924 OPS, but a string of 2014’s can’t be good enough going forward.

“You know you’re going to go through times like this and sometimes the more [work, batting practice] you do, the deeper into it you get,” said Wright, who’s batting .271 with eight homers, 52 RBIs and a .721 OPS. “So much of it is having confidence in the batter’s box and in your swing.

“When you’re in something like this, when you don’t have it, you’re guessing wrong and it seems like you’re swinging before the ball is out of the pitcher’s hand,” he said. “Sometimes it takes only one swing where you feel something click and you have your confidence back.

“I wish I could just snap my fingers and go 20 for the next 20, but unfortunately it hasn’t gone that way quite yet.”

Wright, in the second year of an eight-year extension, is in for $20 million per year for each of the next four seasons. And while baseball may not have a cap, the Wilpons surely do.

As such, of the many things the Mets cannot afford, an unproductive David Wright is at the top of the list.