PHILADELPHIA — Jenrry Mejia had danced around trouble in recent appearances, but Sunday there was no soft landing place.
The Mets closer could only walk from the mound dejectedly after Ryan Howard smashed an RBI single in the ninth that sent the Mets to a 7-6 loss at Citizens Bank Park and started a Phillies celebration.
Mejia, who suffered his third blown save in 20 chances, has been hurting lately. But he revealed the full extent of those aches and pains after Sunday’s loss, when he said he was recently diagnosed with a hernia tear, a condition he suspects has been present for the last three weeks.
The right-hander said he plans to continue pitching and undergo surgery to repair the hernia after the season.
“They gave me some pills,” Mejia said. “I want to take some pills and keep pitching.”
The Mets dealt with a similar issue in 2012, when R.A. Dickey was diagnosed with a hernia tear early in the season and continued pitching. The knuckleballer ultimately underwent surgery after the season.
Last year, reliever Scott Rice tried to pitch through a hernia tear, but never made it to the finish line and underwent surgery with about three weeks remaining in the season.
Manager Terry Collins said he is aware of Mejia’s situation and will leave it to the player to step forward if he can’t continue performing. Mejia has also recently been bothered by a sore right calf.
“The medical people say he should be OK to pitch,” Collins said. “So he’s got to make the decision. If he tells me [Monday] he can’t do it, then we’ll make a decision.”
Marlon Byrd’s pinch-hit, RBI single against Mejia had tied the game at 6-6 in the ninth. With two outs and Byrd on second after a stolen base, Chase Utley was intentionally walked — with the count at 3-2 — before Mejia went full-count to Howard.
“I didn’t want to throw a fastball, because if [Howard] hit my fastball, that was a bad pitch,” Mejia said. “I had to throw a breaking pitch. He got it. I don’t know how he got it, but he got it, and I take my hat off. Good job.”
Mejia said he wanted to take a shot at retiring Utley, but Collins wanted the intentional walk given that Utley had already torched the Mets for three hits in the game.
Josh Edgin struck out Howard with the tying run at third base in the seventh inning, after the Phillies had chased Vic Black on Utley’s two-run triple.
Zack Wheeler lasted six innings and allowed three runs on three hits with five strikeouts and three walks. The right-hander allowed a two-run double to Domonic Brown in the sixth, marking the first time in eight starts he allowed more than two earned runs.
“I pitched all right, but I wasn’t very happy with the overall way I pitched,” Wheeler said. “I was walking guys when we have a big lead, and that’s the last thing you want to do. It drove my pitch count up and I was going smooth there for awhile and then I had to come out because my pitch count was high.”
Lucas Duda and Travis d’Arnaud hit consecutive homers in the fifth, staking the Mets to a 6-1 lead against Kyle Kendrick. Juan Lagares hit a two-run triple in the third after the Mets had taken a 2-0 lead an inning earlier.
Wheeler surrendered a solo homer to Utley in the first and then got rolling. The right-hander didn’t allow another hit until Utley singled in the sixth.
“I felt good with all my pitches,” Wheeler said. “It was just that command was off a little bit.”