The smile Jose Reyes had on his face when he arrived at Citi Field on Tuesday was replaced by a frown Thursday, after he went 1-for-12 as the Mets swept a three-game series from his Marlins.
“I didn’t do anything here,” said Reyes, who was 0-for-4 in the Mets’ 3-2 win.
Reyes appeared to be safe at first on an eighth-inning double-play that took the Marlins out of a potential scoring threat. But he didn’t complain.
“That’s baseball,” he said. “We just need to start to hit and get on base. We have to do something because right now we’re not going the way we wanted to.”
Reyes said he wasn’t nervous about his return to Citi Field and didn’t press.
“After the first game everything was fine for me,” he said. “I came here to play my game. Things just didn’t go the way you want to. It’s going to happen sometimes.We just need to turn it around. It’s all about winning.”
Reyes, who signed a $106 million deal with the Marlins, is batting .205 with an on-base percentage of .262.
“That’s not going to get it done,” he said.
Mets manager Terry Collins said the boos Reyes heard from the Citi Field crowd might have affected him.
“Jose Reyes is a human being and one of the nicest people I’ve ever been around,” Collins said. “If it didn’t bother him I’d be shocked, because he gave his heart and soul to the people here.’’
Collins added the jeering might have been intensified because of Reyes’ bunt to win the 2011 NL batting title.
“To let one little incident happen last year the last day to bother the first seven years here, I hope that’s not true,” Collins said. “But that’s what I guess it was about, yeah.”
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Kirk Nieuwenhuis went 3-for-5 with his first triple, and a two-out, walk-off RBI single to win it. The Mets had been 0-for-15 with the bases loaded this year, their longest such drought to start a season.
“[Nieuwenhuis is] going to be a great player,’’ Collins said. “He’s done a great job.He grinds it out every game. Game time comes, he’s all business. He plays the game hard, plays the game right, and he’s been terrific. I hope it continues.”
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Josh Thole singled in the fourth to stretch his hitting streak to seven games, batting .370 in that span. … Ike Davis singled to snap an 0-11 skid, and his walk was his first since April 17, a span of seven games. … Jordany Valdespin went 0-for-3 in his first start in left field.