Perhaps the only issue Terry Collins wanted to discuss less than injuries in his pregame media gathering Wednesday was bullpen management.
And because those were the subjects of the day — and pretty much every day around this disappointing team — the manager was touchy and miserable.
This was before his bullpen melted again because Collins has poor options or uses the poor options poorly or both. The result was the Padres rallying for a 6-5 victory, and though no team can win them all, you really have to when you are at home against this San Diego club.
The Padres won when their starter, Jarred Cosart, lasted eight outs, their pitchers committed two balks, their best player (Wil Myers) unforgivably got thrown out trying to steal third with two outs in the first inning with cleanup hitter Ryan Schimpf ahead 2-0 in the count, plus right fielder Hunter Renfroe dropped a fly ball.
Those were just some of the lowlights. San Diego is 17-31 on merit. Unfortunately for the Mets, you can say the same about their 19-25 mark.
One of the few items they are most proud of in this dismal season has been their work with runners in scoring position. So much for that. They loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth against Brad Hand, who struck out Curtis Granderson and Rene Rivera before Juan Lagares popped to right. This was misery on top of gloom with a dollop of depression.
And the tension is showing. Again, the Mets had not lost yet when Collins betrayed the pathology of an organization.
Normally chatty and helpful with reporters, Collins provided vagaries and terse responses when asked the status of his injured fleet. He was annoyed this hovers over his team and more so that after an entire adult life in the game he has marching orders from his bosses not to be specific about injuries — as if he is a child not to be trusted with disseminating information.
This is the Mets’ response to year after year of Keystone Kops behavior in dealing with hurt players — to go from inept to uncooperative. Like they decided to follow a “How To” book authored by the Knicks.
When will Yoenis Cespedes be back? No idea. How many at-bats might Asdrubal Cabrera need on his rehab? To that, Collins rattled off a series of numbers, none of them meant to provide accuracy. Will Seth Lugo and Steven Matz need more rehab time? Not sure.
As for his bullpen, Collins complained about the rock-and-hard-place avenue he believes he is in — either being blamed for sticking with his starters too long or overusing his pen. He agrees that his relievers have been overworked, but that is a cascade effect from injury and poor work from the rotation.
Collins decided before the game he would not deploy Jerry Blevins and Paul Sewald, his two most effective setup men, having used them in a 9-3 win the previous day because Matt Harvey lasted just five innings. The cascade.
Robert Gsellman was not pitching great, but he worked a 1-2-3 sixth, was leading 5-3 and had just 84 pitches. Collins said he wanted to get the struggling righty out on a positive note. The plan was Fernando Salas for the seventh, mix and match the eighth, Addison Reed for the ninth.
Salas got two outs, but then loaded the bases — single, walk, walk. Collins saw the wildness and a dip in velocity and summoned Neil Ramirez to face Myers. On April 29, pitching for the Giants, Ramirez had allowed a three-run homer to Myers. He was designated for assignment the next day. I asked Collins if he knew that and he said he did not, that he had not seen the matchups. In this data-driven baseball age, how could the manager and his entire staff not be aware of what occurred less than a month ago?
Myers smashed a ball off the top of the wall in right-center, missing a homer by perhaps three inches. Myers trotted it into a single, but a game-tying, two-run single.
Josh Smoker was the presumptive starter Saturday. But he had struck out Renfroe on Tuesday and Collins decided to prioritize trying to win this game and, hopefully, this would be a work day for Smoker as if he were preparing for Saturday to start in place of the now disabled Tommy Milone. Did we mention the Mets have a ton of injuries that just don’t stop?
Renfroe homered on Smoker’s fifth pitch of the eighth. The bases-loaded, no-out situation was blown in the bottom of the ninth. The tension only continues to mount around these Mets.
And just so the Mets know so they can prepare better — if that is in their capabilities — the subjects on Thursday will be injuries and bullpen management.