All in all, the Mets have had better days.
What was supposed to be a Harvey Day at Citi Field turned into Suspension Central for the Mets on Sunday.
“The game is about the game itself,” manager Terry Collins said. “When you take away that preparation, that factor — these guys have been playing very well — then all of a sudden there’s something thrown into the mix that no one in that room has any control over, it takes a little steam away.”
Or in this situation, after general manager Sandy Alderson announced Matt Harvey was “suspended for three days without pay for violation of club rules,” a lot of steam was taken away.
And so with lefty call-up Adam Wilk completing a cross-country journey to serve as Harvey’s fill-in on the mound, the recently potent Mets were one-hit offensive lambs at the plate in a 7-0 wipeout loss to the Marlins, who stopped the Mets’ winning streak at three games.
“We couldn’t get anything going. It had nothing to do with any bad news,” outfielder Jay Bruce said after the Mets were held hitless for five innings by Miami’s Jose Urena (1-0), making his first start this season. “It’s just baseball.”
Oh, is that what the Mets were doing? Some of the 39,197 in attendance thought it was a tribute to futility.
While the Mets were limited to only Rene Rivera’s sixth-inning leadoff single — plus two walks and two hit batters — Giancarlo Stanton made enough noise for an army. Stanton continued turning Citi Field into his personal playpen with two more homers, his 19th and 20th in the Mets’ home, the most by any opponent.
“He’s really good when he extends his hands,” said Wilk, a former Tiger and Angel. “I don’t think the pitches were terrible, but I didn’t make them do what we were trying to do.”
Stanton made them do his will. After homering Saturday, Stanton smashed a three-run shot in the first, launching an 0-1 slider that reached the second deck in left. In the third, Stanton added a solo shot, a laser to left that smashed off the glass in front of the second deck auxiliary press box. Stanton’s 10th homer this season made it 4-0. This was the 21st multi-home run game of Stanton’s career, third this season. Not all 21 were against the Mets, it just seems that way.
Adeiny Hechavarria made it 5-0 in the fourth with his first homer of the season. When Christian Yelich doubled two outs later, Collins lifted Wilk for Paul Sewald. Yelich scored on a wild pitch making it 6-0. Derek Dietrich stroked an RBI double in the seventh off Sewald to make it 7-0.
For nine straight games, the Mets had scored at least five runs. Yup, and bread used to be a nickel. Fallout from Harvey?
“I don’t think that was the case. We have to give some credit to Urena. He pitched very good,” Jose Reyes said of the Miami starter who needed 63 pitches in six shutout innings before relievers took over. “Harvey, he’s the one who’s supposed to be there on the mound, but everybody knows what happened. As soon as we played, we don’t think about that. We want to take care of business on the field.”
But didn’t.