PHOENIX — Alex Cora is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.
The veteran utilityman, miffed by the laughter inside the Mets’ clubhouse after last night’s 3-2 loss to the Diamondbacks, fired venom in the direction of Mike Pelfrey and reporters who were joking at the pitcher’s locker.
Cora spouted an expletive in Spanish and raised his voice in the direction of Pelfrey and reporters as hede parted the clubhouse at Chase Field.
“A little respect, please!” Cora snapped. “They stuck it up our [butts].”
Jason Bay was not in the room at the time of the outburst, but later heard about it.
“We need something,” Bay said. “You know what I mean?”
At least someone on the team is showing emotion, proving the Mets aren’t a total collection of corpses.
Manager Jerry Manuel’s lineup, whole for the second time this season with the additions of Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Luis Castillo, continues to sputter.
Start with Bay, who is worthy of a seat on the bench after his latest no-show performance. Bay went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a double play on a night rookie Barry Enright made the Mets look silly.
The righty, making his fourth career start, allowed one run on five hits over eight innings. Over the two games with their starting lineup intact, the Mets have scored four runs total. Good thing the D’backs (36-58) are among the laughingstocks of baseball or it could really be ugly for the Mets.
It left R.A. Dickey (6-4) to suffer a third straight defeat in which he pitched reasonably well. The knuckleballer allowed three runs on seven hits over seven innings as the Mets, who lost for the fifth time in six games to start the second half, fell 6½ games behind Atlanta in the NL East.
“I believe this lineup can get it done — I really do,” Manuel said.
Nobody in the lineup is killing the Mets more than Bay, who is batting .189 (10-for-53) in July with only two extra-base hits. His last homer came on June 28, making it 60 at-bats since he last went deep. The Mets have moved him to sixth in the batting order with Beltran’s return, but he might be better off going from left field to left out.
The Mets didn’t score until eighth, when Josh Thole hit his first major league homer. But Enright (2-2) got back on track and finished the inning. Angel Pagan homered leading off the ninth against D’backs closer Juan Gutierrez, but the righty then retired David Wright, Beltran and Ike Davis to earn the save.
Dickey has allowed three earned runs or fewer in each of his three straight losses. The Mets have scored three runs combined in those three starts.
“It just really thought tonight was an outing where we fought tooth and nail,” Dickey said. “We gave our guys a chance to win.”
Enright allowed two hits and a walk in the first inning and then didn’t allow another base runner until Reyes singled leading off the sixth.
The D’backs rattled Dickey in the fourth, scoring twice to grab a 3-0 lead. Chris Snyder walked with two outs before Gerardo Parra launched an RBI triple over Beltran’s head. The pitcher Enright then singled home Parra.
Beltran appeared to get a bad jump on Parra’s ball, but said his surgically repaired right knee wasn’t a factor.
“As soon as he hit it, I thought I was going to be able to make it,” Beltran said. “It just kept going and went over my head.”