Bartolo Colon had nothing Thursday night, but wasn’t about to take it lying down.
Whether the Mets right-hander was intentionally trying to plunk batters or merely move them off the plate, he succeeded in receiving an early ejection that spared him from having to watch the rest of this Citi Field letdown.
The Colon-oscopy was performed in the fourth, but the Mets already were toast in a 6-2 loss to the Nationals that snapped their four-game winning streak.
“I was surprised, but I didn’t think I did anything wrong,” said Colon, who was ejected for hitting Jayson Werth in the back following Anthony Rendon’s two-run homer.
Colon hit Ian Desmond following Adam LaRoche’s two-run blast in the first inning, but received no warning from plate umpire John Tumpane.
“I hit Desmond and nothing happened, so the next time I don’t really know what happened, why [Tumpane] was so quick for his action,” Colon said.
The Nats’ Matt Thornton drilled Daniel Murphy in the eighth and received a warning, but remained in the game. Murphy was hit in the left wrist and was removed from the game with a contusion. X-rays were negative.
For those keeping track of such abstract statistics, the Mets (71-76) fell 6 ½ games behind the Pirates in the race for the NL’s second wild card.
The Mets are 2-11 against the Nationals this season and still have six games remaining against the NL East leaders. The Nationals have won 12 straight games at Citi Field over the last two seasons, outscoring the Mets 80-23 in the process. So even getting to .500 before the season concludes in 16 days will be a serious challenge for the Mets.
“It’s going to be hard — really hard,” manager Terry Collins said. “Because they are playing for something really big and so are the Braves, so we’ve got our work cut out for us here.”
The Nationals improved to 83-62, lead the Braves by 8 ½ games in the NL East and are one game ahead of the Dodgers in the loss column for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
After Rendon’s two-run homer put the Mets in a 6-0 hole in the fourth and Colon was ejected for drilling Werth, Collins was tossed for arguing the ejection. Colon had hit only three batters over his previous 179 ²/₃ innings this season.
Colon (13-12) allowed six runs, five earned, on seven hits and two walks over three-plus innings. The outing was the shortest of the season for the 41-year-old, who had gone at least six innings in 12 of his previous 15 starts, dating to June 13.
“I was a little surprised by it all,” Collins said. “I actually thought with what’s going on, Bart would step up and give us a good ballgame. He just never had his good command. You don’t look up in the third inning and see 70 pitches when Bartolo Colon is pitching.”
Anthony Recker’s homer leading off the fifth against Tanner Roark (13-10) gave the Mets their first run. Recker entered the game behind the plate a half-inning earlier to replace Travis d’Arnaud, who left the game to rest a sore wrist.
Dilson Herrera delivered an RBI single in the seventh that sliced the Nationals’ lead to 6-2, but Wilmer Flores hit into a double play with the bases loaded to kill the rally.
The Mets’ last gasp came in the eighth, when Murphy was hit to load the bases. Lucas Duda was then retired for the second out before Tyler Clippard entered and struck out Recker.
“We had several opportunities to get back in the game and we didn’t do anything,” Collins said. “They do it. They have opportunities and they get big hits. That’s a credit to their team.”