When Washington’s Willie Harris went horizontal for a game-ending diving catch, he robbed Rod Barajas of a game-winning hit with a highlight-reel play that highlighted the Mets’ clutch-hitting woes.
They left runner after runner in scoring position, stranded the bases loaded time and again in a 4-3 loss.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth, Barajas pulled Matt Capps’ pitch to left, a slicing ball that seemed destined to drop and plate Jose Reyes with the tying run and likely David Wright with the winner. But Harris — who made great defensive plays against the Mets in the spring — made a huge one that counted.
“It’s tough. Once I put the wood on the ball, I thought something good was going to happen. You go from excitement [thinking] the game’s going to be over right here, to a loss, and it’s tough to take,” said Barajas. “Any loss is tough to take but when you see victory close, it makes it even harder.
“It’s definitely frustrating. We’re doing something positive to be in the situation but it doesn’t matter if you’re not getting the guys in its all for naught. It’s tough. Pretty soon we need to start executing. We’re getting ourselves there but we have to start finishing the deal.”
The Mets, 0-for-3 with the bases loaded coming into yesterday, loaded the bases in the second, third and ninth innings and went 0-for-3 against the Nationals.
“We had some opportunities; it shouldn’t have come down to that,” said Jerry Manuel, who saw his team go just 2-of-14 with runners in scoring position and strand a dozen men on base.
“We need to find a way to win these close ones. That’s the difference between mediocre teams and good ones,” Wright said.
“We’ve gotten beat a couple times by good defensive plays, but we’ve also given away at-bats. It’s good we’re putting ourselves in that position but we need to find a way to get the big hit.”
The Mets loaded the bases in the second on a walk to Jason Bay, double by Jeff Francoeur and walk to Gary Matthews Jr. But Fernando Tatis popped out to first and Bay scored on Henry Blanco’s sac fly. They loaded the bases with nobody out the very next inning, but didn’t even get a run out of that.
Jeff Francoeur hit a dribbler, and catcher Pudge Rodriguez grabbed it, stepped on the plate and threw to first for a double-play, and Matthews grounded out.
brian.lewis@nypost.com