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Saturday, Sep. 9 7:10pm ET
Mets drop to 1-7 in September | |||||
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RECAP
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GAME LOG
NEW YORK (AP) -- The only thing the New York Mets are hitting hard right now is their equipment. A night after Mike Hampton took on the water cooler, Turk Wendell took out his frustration on his glove, throwing it into the stands in disgust as the Mets lost meekly again, 6-3 to the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday. "How many rows deep did it go in?" Wendell asked. "Make the X Games on that one. It was definitely my longest toss." Robert Person (8-5) and five relievers combined on a six-hitter, sending New York to its 15th loss in 17 September games dating to last year. New York, which seemed a lock for the playoffs 10 days ago, is 1-7 this September and saw its wild card lead cut to 3½ games over Arizona. The Mets remained 3½ games behind NL East-leading Atlanta. "It comes to be a pride thing," said Mike Piazza, one the Mets whose average is dropping along with the temperature. "It's embarrassing and it's frustrating. You can't win every game. If you lose, you lose with dignity, but you want to feel you're out there doing your job. Obviously, we're not." Todd Zeile, celebrating his 35th birthday, was part of the meltdown, drawing a line in the dirt with his bat for plate umpire Travis Katzenmeier, who called him out on strikes in the seventh. Edgardo Alfonzo, with just eight errors coming in, helped the Phillies by missing a pair of grounders in the seventh _ one ruled a hit, the other an error. The crowd of 42,324 turned on New York, booing the sloppy display. "We've just got to battle out of this," Mets manager Bobby Valentine said. "We have to pull some magic. I'm supposed to find a way out of it." Since pounding the Diamondbacks' Randy Johnson on Aug. 25, the Mets' bats seem to be infected with a team-wide virus: They have just 34 runs in 13 games and are hitting .198 (81-for-409). Piazza is batting .278 (10-for-36) with a pair of solo homers for his only RBI in that span. Alfonzo is hitting .238 (10-for-42) with five RBI, Zeile .111 (4-for-36) with three RBI and Robin Ventura is .070 (3-for-43) with two RBI, going hitless in his last 22 at-bats. "This game," Piazza said, "is impossible to play when you're, for lack of better words, pressing, trying to force pitches, trying to force swings, make things happen, reaching for something that's not there, somewhere between aggressive and too aggressive. You have to allow your ability to take over." Philadelphia came to New York with the worst record in the major leagues, losers of eight straight, scoring 16 runs in the skid. But the Mets scored just three runs in the first two games of the series, reminiscent of the 1998 slide that caused them to miss the playoffs and the one last year that nearly cost them a postseason spot. Person improved to 3-0 against the Mets in his career, allowing one run and three hits in six innings. "We're in a position to do some damage to potential playoffs teams, just like last year," he said. Pat Burrell's RBI double put the Phillies ahead in the sixth, ending Glendon Rusch's scoreless streak at 16 innings, but Alfonzo doubled home a run in the bottom half. Wendell (7-5) relieved to start the seventh and allowed pinch-hitter Travis Lee's single past shortstop leading off. Bobby Abreu then hit a hard grounder to second that Alfonzo should have turned into a double play, but the ball skipped past him -- it was originally called an error, then changed to a hit -- putting runners on second and third. Doug Glanville followed with a go-ahead sacrifice fly, with Lee just beating Piazza's tag at the plate following Timoniel Perez strong throw from center. After an intentional walk to Scott Rolen, Burrell lined an RBI single over Alfonzo. Wendell faced one more batter, retiring Brian Hunter on a foul pop, then was taken out. That's when he tossed his glove over the Mets' dugout as he walked off the field, as a way of purging the defeat. "If you're dating a girl and having a bad time all the time, get a new one and make yourself happy," Wendell said. On Friday night, Hampton threw his glove and punched water coolers when he came out after allowing Rolen's two-run, eighth-inning homer. "It is what it is," Valentine said. "I don't control emotion. If you have to let it out, let it out. They always say it's better than keeping it in." Derek Bell homered off Vicente Padilla with two outs in the eighth, but Brian Hunter hit a three-run homer off Armando Benitez in the ninth. Benny Agbayani homered in the bottom half off Jeff Brantley. On Sunday, the Mets face Omar Daal, at 3-17 the losingest pitcher in the major leagues this season. On Saturday night, the Mets weren't feeling much consolation. "I'm not saying anything," Piazza said. "I'm not. You can't. We're going to go after him like any pitcher." Game notesPhillies aren't hitting much better than the Mets. They were batting .186 in their previous nine games (54-for-291) before getting 12 hits Saturday. ... Bell made a leaping catch against the right-field fence on Burrell's drive in the fourth. The ball probably would have hit the top of the fence. ... Burrell slipped on wet grass rounding third in the sixth and had to hold up, costing Philadelphia a run. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Philadelphia Clubhouse NY Mets Clubhouse RECAPS NY Yankees 5 Boston 3
Philadelphia 6
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