For the conclusion of Fleet Week, with the Pirates in town, the Mets can bring in Micheal Ray Richardson for a dramatic rendition of “The ship be sinking.”
Hitting coach Dave Hudgens and reliever Jose Valverde were thrown overboard Monday. Hudgens was fired and Valverde released after the Mets’ 5-3 loss to the Pirates at Citi Field.
Hudgens, who presided over a lineup that is near the bottom of the National League in several key categories, will be replaced by 63-year-old Lamar Johnson, who has spent the last 10 years as the Mets’ minor-league hitting coordinator. Reliever Vic Black will be promoted from Triple-A Las Vegas to take Valverde’s roster spot.
The 38-year-old Valverde’s release was almost expected given his performance — he had been shaky since mid-April, when he was stripped of the closer’s job, and allowed four earned runs Monday to help flush a strong start by Jacob deGrom.
Hudgens’ firing was more surprising given his tight relationship with general manager Sandy Alderson from their days together in the A’s organization. Alderson hired Hudgens before the 2011 season to implement an organizational hitting approach that calls for batters to work counts and “hunt” for strikes.
“We’ve had issues home and road over the last several years, not just this season,” Alderson said. “Also, our situational hitting is not what we want it to be.
“Our hitting approach will not change appreciably. Any time there is a new person, there is a new voice, a new take, a different interpretation, both from a mechanical as well as an approach point of view. This is unfortunately what baseball is about, so we’ve decided to make that change.”
Hudgens told The Post he holds no bitterness toward Alderson.
“I have nothing but respect for Sandy and no doubt he will turn things around if he’s allowed to,” Hudgens said.
Manager Terry Collins got emotional when he was asked if Monday’s shake-up sends a message that he could be next on the firing line. The Mets (22-28) have lost 17-of-24 games in May.
“When you’re evaluated, you know where it starts? In the mirror,” Collins said. “You know what kind of job you do. You know how you go about your job and at the end of the day if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.
“But don’t think for one second there’s not a guy in there that doesn’t realize this is part of it. We just released one of the best professionals I’ve ever been around in my life in Jose Valverde. [Bleep] happens. You deal with it. And if you can’t, you don’t belong in the game.”
The Mets went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position on Monday and are batting .197 in such situations during the seven-game homestand. The team’s .237 batting average overall ranked 12th in the NL entering play. The Mets were ninth in the league with 205 runs scored.
“When you struggle the way we’ve struggled offensively, the finger obviously gets pointed and a lot of the finger gets pointed unfairly,” David Wright said. “We as players were the ones not getting the job done.”
Gaby Sanchez’s RBI single in the ninth against Valverde put the Pirates ahead for the first time. Curtis Granderson’s throwing error on the play allowed a second run to score and Russell Martin’s RBI double against Carlos Torres completed the carnage in the inning.
The Mets took a 2-0 lead into the eighth, but couldn’t hold it. Rice entered and allowed a homer to the pinch-hitter Sanchez leading off the inning before Jose Tabata’s pinch-hit RBI single against Valverde tied the game at 2-2.
Duda’s solo homer in the ninth wasn’t enough to ignite the Mets and possibly save Hudgens’ job for at least another day.
“[The firing] was something we considered over a period of time,” Alderson said. “And I was hoping we would see some significant change perhaps during this homestand and we have been getting more hits — situational hitting has not improved substantially. When you’re not scoring runs at the rate you would like to, it’s a consideration.”