Code Brew
Mets all-in on Lu roy as losses start to pile up
Terry Collins addressed his team after another loss Friday night, this one a 6-1 defeat to the Rockies.
Now that the Mets have dropped three in a row and four out of five thanks to a complete inability to take advantage of scoring opportunities, you might expect the manager’s message to be something other than: “Let’s have some fun.”
But that’s pretty much what Collins told the Mets in a rare postgame speech at Citi Field, this one following a game in which they wasted another solid performance by a starting pitcher and managed to go 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
“A lot of things pile up and I said, ‘Look, we need to lighten it up around here,’ ” Collins said. “We’ve still got good players, good pitching. Quit worrying about bad things.”
There’s plenty to worry about, especially with their place among playoff contenders in a precarious position and Monday’s non-waiver trade deadline approaching.
“The last several days we’ve given ourselves a lot of opportunities and we just haven’t gotten it done,” Neil Walker said. “This is not the time of year to panic. … I’ve played in a wildcard race for the last three years and we’ve gone through the same things in July and August. The thing you can’t do is panic.”
Still, after two gut-wrenching losses thanks to Jeurys Familia’s back-to-back blown saves, this defeat was even more deflating.
Steven Matz gave up a pair of runs in six innings and the Mets wasted three at-bats in the eighth inning when they were trying to rally with runners in scoring position.
A pinch-hit single by Alejandro De Aza and a bloop hit by Curtis Granderson off lefty Jake McGee set the Mets
up in the eighth. But after Travis d’Arnaud grounded into a fielder’s choice, Yoenis Cespedes couldn’t repeat his late-game heroics of two games ago, as he popped out. James Loney followed with a ground out.
All of the outs came on the first pitch.
Matz, coming off a win in Miami in which he tossed six scoreless innings, wasn’t as efficient Friday, needing 104 pitches to get through six, surrendering runs in the first and sixth.
The Mets tied the game in the second when Loney led off with his sixth homer of the season. Walker followed with a single to left. Then, with two out, Rockies starter Tyler Chatwood issued walks to Michael Conforto and Matz to load the bases for Granderson, who popped out on a 3-1 pitch to keep the game knotted.
The 60 pitches Matz needed to get through the first three innings helped force the lefty out of the game after six innings. He gave up a season-high 10 hits, but just the two runs.
Matz’s close calls caught up with him in the sixth, as Mark Reynolds followed Trevor Story’s leadoff single by driving a double into the gap in left-center. Conforto got to the ball and fired to second in time to get Reynolds at second, but Walker couldn’t handle the bounce.
David Dahl popped to left for the first out and the Mets opted to pitch to Hundley, the No. 8 hitter, instead of loading the bases to face Chatwood. Hundley shot a single by Wilmer Flores at third to give the Rockies the lead for good.
Carlos Gonzalez sealed it with a three-run homer off Antonio Bastardo in the ninth.
“There’s a lot of games to play,” Collins said. “We’re not dead. We’re still in the hunt and we need to loosen up a little bit all the way around. I’m tired of seeing long faces. We need to have some fun and get back to the way we can play the game. We’re gonna plan on doing that [Saturday] night.”