A struggling Zack Wheeler leaves the baseball game during the sixth inning. (AP)
CHICAGO — Zack Wheeler’s foray into the South Side of Chicago last night, to paraphrase the late Jim Croce, ended with him resembling a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone.
The highly regarded Mets pitching prospect struggled with control early and never got on the kind of roll that saved him last week during his major league debut in Atlanta.
Wheeler departed after 5 1/3 sloppy innings, and the Mets wasted a ninth-inning comeback on a fluke play in a 5-4 loss to the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.
Alexei Ramirez’s RBI single against LaTroy Hawkins ended it, after Jeff Keppinger’s leadoff single and error by Hawkins fielding Gordon Beckham’s sacrifice bunt started the winning rally. Carlos Torres and Josh Edgin had combined for 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief before Hawkins lost it.
Taking a page from the Luis Castillo playbook, the White Sox bumbled a chance to finish the game in the top of the ninth. Daniel Murphy hit a pop up that should have ended it, but Beckham, the second baseman, brushed pitcher Addison Reed and then stumbled into third baseman Conor Gillaspie, allowing the ball to drop. David Wright, running from second base, scored easily to tie the game.
The White Sox had runners on base in five of the six innings started by Wheeler, who surrendered four earned runs on four hits and three walks with one strikeout over 109 pitches. Wheeler avoided his first major league defeat because of the pop up miscue by the White Sox.
In his debut last week, Wheeler pitched six shutout innings against the Braves in which he allowed four hits and five walks, but made the big pitch when he needed to escape trouble.
Next stop for Wheeler is Citi Field on Sunday, when he faces the Nationals in his home debut.
“The more he pitches here, you want to start seeing the growth a little bit,” manager Terry Collins said before the game. “I think probably Sunday in New York he will be pretty amped up, and he should be. I know there’s a lot of people waiting to see him, too.
“The thing I liked about him [against Atlanta] was he took a little time, gained his composure and made big pitches when he had to make them to get out of those first two innings, especially. Everybody talks about he’s a quiet kid, but on that mound he competes. If he doesn’t want to talk that’s up to him, but he competes.”
After scoring seven and eight runs, respectively, in their final two games against the Phillies over the weekend, the Mets (30-43) had early success against stud lefty Chris Sale before going silent in the later innings.
Sale allowed three earned runs on four hits and two walks with 13 strikeouts over eight innings. Sale struck out the side in both the fourth and sixth innings and had two strikeouts in each of the first, second and third innings.
Wheeler’s night came unraveled in the fifth, when the White Sox scored twice to take a 4-3 lead. Beckham singled to lead off the inning and Tyler Flowers walked. Both runners then advanced on a wild pitch. Alejandro De Aza grounded out, scoring a run, and Ramirez hit a sacrifice fly for another.
The Mets had taken a 3-2 lead on Andrew Brown’s homer leading off the top of the inning. It was Brown’s third homer in only 20 at-bats this season.
Flowers’ homer leading off the third had tied the game at 2-2 after the White Sox had scored a run in the first on Alex Rios’ RBI ground out. The rally that produced the first major league run scored against Wheeler started with a De Aza single and stolen base. Wheeler needed 23 pitches to escape the inning.
The Go-Go Mets used two stolen bases to grab a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Eric Young Jr. doubled leading off the game against Sale and stole third before Marlon Byrd delivered a sacrifice fly for a run. David Wright, who had walked, then stole second and scored on Josh Satin’s single.
mpuma@nypost.com