Padres 3
Mets 1
SAN DIEGO – Another tight game, another Met loss. At this point, it’s becoming routine.
The closer the games get, the worse things seem to go for the Mets right now. Last night wasn’t any exception.
In what’s becoming a disturbing trend, the Mets dropped a 3-1 game to the Padres. They’re now 2-6 on this road trip, which mercifully ends this afternoon, and 9-15 overall.
Right now only two teams in the National League have won fewer than 10 games. One’s the Mets. The other’s the Expos, and that shouldn’t be a consolation.
The Mets also announced that they were playing last night’s game under protest. In the eighth inning, manager Art Howe came out for a discussion with plate ump Alfonso Marquez and first base ump Rick Reed. At issue was Padre reliever Akinori Otsuka’s delivery.
The Mets believe the Japanese reliever, who sports an unusual motion in which he holds the ball out of his glove momentarily during his windup, takes his hand out of the glove too far.
But right now, the Mets have bigger issues than an opposing reliever’s delivery. Like the fact they’ve managed just two runs in their last 17 innings. Like the fact they again failed to deliver in the clutch, going 3-for-16 with runners on base.
And like the fact that, so far this year, they have not been able to mount a single late-inning comeback. They’re 0-12 when trailing after six innings.
The big blow last night came off John Franco in the sixth. Pitching in relief of Al Leiter, who left with a 1-1 tie, Franco sandwiched a Sean Burroughs single between two outs. That brought up slugger Brian Giles.
Giles, who’s swinging a scorching bat right now, had homered on Friday off Tyler Yates. This time, Franco offered him a 2-1 fastball that Giles crashed over the right-center-field fence. Ballgame.
Facing tough San Diego right-hander Jake Peavy, the Mets could muster just that lone run. That came in the fourth, and even it required maximum exertion.
After Karim Garcia smoked a leadoff triple, the Mets were in prime position to jump on Peavy. But Shane Spencer grounded to third, and Garcia had to hold. Jason Philips then grounded to first with Garcia holding again. Just when it appeared the Mets were going to squander the opportunity, Danny Garcia blooped an RBI single to center.
Leiter threw zeroes through four innings, but he labored in each one against the relentless San Diego lineup. In the first, he allowed a single and two walks, finally stranding the bases loaded after 33 pitches.
Leiter left two on in the second, stranded the bases loaded again in the third and was bailed out by Petco’s Park’s absurdly large dimensions in the fourth.
With two outs, Leiter walked Mark Loretta, bringing up Giles. On Leiter’s 97th pitch, Giles blasted a drive to deep right, an apparent no-doubt two-run homer. An animated Leiter even grimaced, throwing both hands on his head. But incredibly Garcia hauled in the shot at the wall. Call it a 405-foot … out.
San Diego finally got Leiter in the fifth when Brian Buchanan smashed a cutter into the overhanging stands on the left-field warehouse. With his pitch count at 113, Leiter was done after that inning, wrapping up a peculiar outing.
He walked seven and threw more balls (61) than strikes (52). At the same time, credit him for only allowing the one run.