ANAHEIM, Calif. — Bartolo Colon suffered an untimely death by meatballs on Sunday, but in five days will live again.
With the veteran right-hander serving up little more than glorified batting practice to the Angels, the Mets never had much of a shot in their attempt to win a third straight series.
Colon was bludgeoned for three straight home runs in the first inning and never came close to recovering in the Mets’ 14-2 loss in front of 38,855 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.
“Everything was all right — maybe they just felt a little bit better than me,” Colon said.
All told, Colon (1-2) surrendered four homers and had a final line that included nine earned runs allowed on 11 hits with two walks over five innings.
This was hardly the Colon who was brilliant in seven shutout innings against the Braves last Tuesday.
But this Angels lineup, even without injured Josh Hamilton, is as dangerous as any Colon may face this season.
The nine runs allowed by Colon matched a career high. He had last surrendered that many on May 28, 2007 while pitching for the Angels against the Mariners.
Already ahead 7-1 in the fifth, the Angels padded their lead on Hank Conger’s two-run homer against Colon. Though it clearly wasn’t Colon’s day, manager Terry Collins stuck with him to protect a bullpen that had been overextended in consecutive extra-inning games.
“He had to give us some innings,” Collins said. “He knew it and he came in and had no problem with it — he’s a pro. He knew exactly what was going on, and just up in the zone with all his stuff today. That’s just not him.”
Colon said he told pitching coach Dan Warthen in the fourth inning that he intended to get the Mets through the seventh. But that goal proved too ambitious.
The Mets lost 5-4 in 11 innings on Friday when Jeurys Familia drilled Conger with the bases loaded to score the winning run. On Saturday, they rebounded to beat the Angels 7-6 in 13 innings, after Jose Valverde had blown a three-run lead in the ninth. Anthony Recker’s homer leading off the 13th gave the
Mets their final lead.
On Sunday, Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Raul Ibanez went back-to-back-to-back with homers in the first. All three were titanic blasts, and Kole Calhoun delivered a loud double moments later, accentuating the fact Colon had nothing.
“From what I’ve seen from [Colon] these days are few and far between,” David Wright said. “This was just a flat out beating.”
Johan Santana had been the last Mets pitcher to allow three straight homers. That occurred on June 8, 2012 at Yankee Stadium — in the left-hander’s initial start after delivering the first no-hitter in franchise history — when Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher and Andruw Jones went deep in succession against Santana.
The Mets trailed 4-1 in the fourth, when the Angels padded their lead against Colon on Erick Aybar’s two-run double and J.B. Shuck’s RBI single.
Ian Stewart completed the barrage against the Mets with a two-run homer in the eighth against John Lannan.
Wright’s RBI single in the first against C.J. Wilson gave the Mets (5-7) an early lead, but their hopes of reaching .500 for the first time this season were dimmed by the time the Angels completed their four-run outburst in the bottom of the inning.
“We knew we were facing one of the better left-handers in the game, so runs were probably going to be at a minimum,” Wright said. “To get one early, it felt pretty good and then it just wasn’t [Colon’s] day today.”