After being limited to two hits in two of the previous three games, Terry Collins talked before Monday’s matinee against the Giants about how the Mets’ offense couldn’t continue to be so bad. Eventually, he said, the runs would come.
And with that, Daniel Murphy blasted a first-inning home run off of Tim Hudson, giving the Mets an early lead, which they would surrender and reclaim heading into the seventh inning.
Finally, enough hits had come. The only problem was the sequence of events Collins couldn’t see coming — the breakdown of one of baseball’s best bullpens.
Jeurys Familia and Jenrry Mejia hadn’t allowed a run through a combined 18 innings, but the two young right-handers each surrendered a run to cement the Mets’ 4-3 loss at Citi Field, as the team lost its first home series in its last seven attempts.
“I’m real surprised,” said Collins, who was ejected in the seventh inning after arguing a questionable strike call against Lucas Duda. “We talked about how good they were pitching, [but] they’re not perfect. There’s going to be a hiccup here and there, and today was that hiccup.
“It was very uncharacteristic. We have been spoiled. They’ve done such a great job. It’s all about learning, a learning experience. You know once in a while you’re going to give up some runs, and today was one of those days.”
Entering their series with the Giants, the Mets had won six of their previous nine games, but the offensive assault inflicted on the last-place Phillies couldn’t carry over against the NL wild-card leaders, who held the Mets scoreless in 31 of 35 innings.
After three losses in four games, the Mets head out on a seven-game road trip Tuesday, beginning with the first-place Nationals, who the Mets face in six of their next 10 games.
“We’ve got a tough road trip ahead of us, so we got to really bounce back on the road against a really good Washington team,” Collins said. “We got to be like we were the last couple years, and start winning on the road.”
Following a solid start from Dillon Gee, in which he allowed two runs over 5 ²/₃ innings, the Mets looked as if they had finally produced enough offense, handing one of the game’s hottest bullpens a 3-2 lead with nine outs to go. Then, Familia allowed only his second run since June 12.
Hunter Pence led off the seventh inning with a triple, his long fly ball to left-center falling in between the leaping Chris Young and Juan Lagares, with the ball grazing off Young’s glove. After a walk to Gregor Blanco, Familia unleashed a wild pitch, allowing Pence to tie the game, which was followed by a walk to Buster Posey.
Familia got bailed out from a bigger beating when Juan Lagares gunned down Blanco at home on a Pablo Sandoval single. After Familia was removed, Josh Edgin ended the inning by inducing a double play from Brandon Belt.
“I just tried to do what I do always, to find the zone, get a ground ball or strike them out,” Familia said.
“I think I had my stuff. I just had a bad day everybody can have.”
Mejia entered a tie game in the ninth inning, having allowed one earned run over his past 16 innings.
He retired the first two hitters before giving up a single to Blanco and a walk to Posey. Already with two RBIs on an earlier double, Sandoval drove him the winning run with another double, which dropped just inside the foul line in left.
“It was out of the zone. He got it, [but] I don’t know how he got it,” said Mejia, who said he felt some back tightness, but believes it isn’t an issue. We got to know that’s going to happen because we’ve been pitching very good. Some days, we’re going to be bad. Not every day is going to be good.”
“They got Familia and they got me. That’s all right. [We] got to be ready for tomorrow. Going to get ’em tomorrow.”