After Thursday’s matinee, 90 losses sounds more believable than Sandy Alderson’s goal of 90 wins.
The Mets lost another player in Chris Young, then lost 8-2 to the Nationals, completing a three-game sweep at home to start the season for the first time in their history.
They hadn’t even recovered from putting closer Bobby Parnell on the disabled list when they had to do the same with Young on Thursday, thanks to a strained quad. The Mets fell to 0-3 for the first time since 2005, and dropped their first three home games for the first time in 17 years, with no bigger culprit than their beleaguered bullpen.
“It certainly leaves a sour taste in your mouth when you start out the season like this,’’ said manager Terry Collins, who got a quality start from Zack Wheeler (0-1).
But the bullpen coughed up five runs (four earned) in three innings to continue its shoddy start in front of a tiny crowd of 20,561 at Citi Field. And Collins couldn’t think of a single more deflating thing than bad relief work.
“No. It was tough. We certainly didn’t pitch as well as we’d hoped to,’’ Collins said. “When we come out of that bullpen, we’ve got to start throwing some strikes, that’s the biggest [thing]. When you look at when we’re successful, it’s when you make the other team swing the bat. … You get behind, you start setting yourself up. When you’re behind in the count, you’re going to get in trouble.’’
The Mets have seen nothing but trouble so far. Wheeler (six innings, seven hits and three earned runs) left trailing just 3-2. But the bullpen has pitched to a bloated 10.61 ERA this year and looked terrible again.
“Pitches are getting left over the middle and they’re falling behind in counts. You just got to get ahead of hitters,’’ said catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who has yet to get a hit this season. “It’s part of the game. You got to keep your head up, keep working and things will turn around.’’
Wheeler did hit 97 mph and threw well at times against Nationals emergency starter Tanner Roark (1-0), filling in for ailing Jordan Zimmerman.
Curtis Granderson — who was 0-for-9 with five strikeouts and hearing boos as a Met after two games — hit an RBI double in the first. And after Lucas Duda had worked a 10-pitch walk to load the bases, Juan Lagares hit the next pitch for a sacrifice fly and a 2-0 Mets lead.
But Ryan Zimmerman (4-for-4) tagged Wheeler for a solo shot to left the next inning, and he gave up two in the fifth. He walked No. 8 hitter Sandy Leon and paid for it, seeing him score and Jason Werth stroke a two-out RBI single.
That’s when the bullpen imploded. Scott Rice started the seventh but gave up a leadoff single to Scott Hairston and after a sac bunt, took a Bryce Harper liner off his right shin for an infield hit.
Jeurys Familia entered but walked Werth on four pitches, then surrendered an Adam LaRoche single to shallow right that scored both Hairston and Harper for a 5-2 lead. Zimmerman’s single to right brought home Werth from third, and a second error by second baseman Daniel Murphy — back after his wife delivered their first child on Monday — made it 7-2.
Carlos Torres gave up two hits, two walks and a run in the eighth, walking LaRoche with the bases loaded for the final margin.
“We’ll watch this series and we’ll learn from it,’’ Murphy said.
“We’re three games in and I don’t think there’s a need to panic,’’ Duda added.