Another ugly loss at the end of an atrocious homestand at Citi Field left Mets manager Terry Collins furious yesterday — and with some accusatory words toward his team.
“The perception I have right now is that we’ve folded it up, and I don’t stand for that,” the manager said after the Mets were stomped by Washington, 10-1, to finish a homestand in which they lost eight of nine and were swept by the Nationals.
“You want to see me be intense? You guys are going to see it,” Collins said. “You come to play the game right, I don’t care what the situation is. Our fans should be upset. There was no energy at all on the field.”
The Mets (71-79) were left with their sixth straight loss. They were all to teams just like them — well under .500 and out of the playoff race.
“You get to this point in the season and this happens, that’s the immediate jump-to point,” Jason Bay said of Collins’ harsh words. “Unfortunately, a lot of us have been in this position before. Guys are trying to finish strong.”
It’s not happening during this stretch.
“It seemed like we found every way to lose a game,” R.A. Dickey said after the latest humbling defeat.
After getting a solid outing from Chris Schwinden (0-2) in which he gave up two runs — one earned in five innings — the Mets disintegrated in the game’s latter stages that were played in front of just a few hundred fans on a rainy, cold afternoon.
There were walks — and a balk — by a bullpen that didn’t pitch well, a lack of timely hitting and shoddy defense that led to two unearned runs.
“We know we’re playing bad,” David Wright said. “We’re just not doing anything well.
“We know that we’re playing bad,” he added. “We don’t need anybody to tell us that we’re playing bad. I think that we’ve played decent on the road, but at home we’ve choked.”
Wright had a chance to improve things yesterday, but flied out to left field with the bases loaded and two out in the seventh with the Mets trailing 3-1.
The Nationals ended whatever drama there may have been with seven runs in the final two innings, which included another Wright error, as well as Angel Pagan seemingly slowing up on Wilson Ramos’ fly to right-center in the eighth, which fell in for a double.
Nevertheless, Collins said he doesn’t believe his team has destroyed whatever positive results it had earlier in the year — yet.
“I don’t think this is throwing away what we’ve done,” Collins said. “Obviously, this is an awful time. . . . I’ve got to find a new formula and I don’t know what it is yet. We’ve got a three-hour plane flight to figure it out because that next team, they will embarrass us if we play like we did here.”
That next team is the Braves, once again headed to the postseason while the Mets wallow in another messy September. The recent 1-8 stint at Citi Field has all but ended any hopes they had of finishing .500 for the season.
“We’re not done yet,” Collins said. “I’m just disgusted with the way we played this homestand. . . . If we’re going to fold it up, that tells me something. That tells me a lot about how we’re going to be come crunch time next year, when we are fighting for something.”
At this point, a late-season playoff run next season is difficult to envision, but this collapse is not the product of a lack of effort, according to Wright.
“Guys are battling their butts off,” Wright said. “Sometimes you just don’t get hits or make pitches.”