HOW dePRESSING!
JACOB JOLTED, BATS STILL SILENT AS CUBS SWEEP METS
There were still about 0,000 people at Citi Field when Lucas Duda put an end o another lifeless defeat to the ubs in a game that seemed ver almost as soon as Jacob deGrom gave up a run in the fth, his second of the game. And it appeared those that emained Thursday were only n hand to boo the Mets after third straight defeat to Chi-cago, this one 6-1 before they ead to the West Coast. Terry Collins lamented what went wrong in yet another life-less defeat. And he pointed to deGrom’s line-drive double lay in the bottom of the fifth, when the deficit was just one un. “Talk about being snake-bit,” Collins said. “If that’s not an indication of it, nothing is. he only thing left is human sacrifice. So we have to pick omeone.” No doubt the citizens of anic City wouldn’t have a roblem finding a candidate. It’s gotten so bad in Queens hat almost any run that’s surendered by a Mets pitcher pells doom for the home eam. On Thursday, the magic number was actually wo, since there was a rela-tive explosion from the Mets’ offense, as they scored a run in the third after going a seasonhigh 22 innings without one.
That run, of course, was set up by a double by deGrom — the pitcher too frequently being the most potent bat in the lineup — and driven in by Curtis Granderson. Despite Collins’ attempt at a lineup shuffle, even the manager realizes he doesn’t have much with which to work.
Now, after scoring one run in three games at home against the Cubs, the Mets get to go up against Dodgers aces Clayton Kershaw on Friday and Zack Greinke on Saturday.
Asked if he thought he had the personnel needed to right the ship on the road, Collins said: “Three weeks ago, I would say yeah. When we were playing real well, I would say, ‘Absolutely.’ We battled every good pitcher in this league. We beat Max [Scherzer] twice, we beat some great pitchers. We can beat anybody. We’ve just got to believe we can.”
In an effort to make that happen, Collins stopped briefly in the clubhouse after the game to tell his team to “lighten up.”
“They are so tense and so tight and so worried about making a big out instead of walking up there like they’re gonna get a hit,” Collins said. “For heaven’s sake, play the game with some fun, with some energy, with some enthusiasm.”
Instead, he’s seeing, dare we say, panic.
DeGrom, far from his best thanks to a lack of command, had surrendered just two runs with one out in the sixth, but Jonathan Herrera homered just over the right-field fence to make it 4-1. And Collins all but admitted the game was lost.
“In our game, perception is reality,” Collins said. “When you look down the bench and Herrera hit that two-run hom- er, you could sense the air coming out of the balloon. … It’s like we’re behind by six and we’re not.”
His players disagreed, but appreciated the sentiment of Collins’ address.
“The sky isn’t falling,” said Daniel Murphy, whose throwing error in the fifth led to an unearned run that gave the Cubs the lead for good. “With what has happened to us from an injury standpoint right now … we would like to be 10 games over .500, but we’re not. That’s the hand we’ve been dealt. Just take a step back and understand the season isn’t over. We’re not even at the All-Star break yet.”
It’s hard to know whether that’s a good thing, especially with a daunting trip ahead.