Those Mets

METS DROP SERIES, FINISH UGLY ROADTRIP

Extra-inning games have been treacherous for the Mets this season. The only one they won lasted 20 innings and left them exhausted. On Wednesday, they made it to the bottom of the 10th when Orlando Cabrera hit a solo shot off Pedro Feliciano to give the Cincinnati Reds a 5-4 victory and a second game-winning home run in extra innings in this three-game series. As a result, the Mets limped home after a 2-4 trip that took away the momentum from a 9-1 homestand that temporarily put them in first place. The Mets are 1-4 in extra inning games, including their 3-2 loss to the Reds in 11 innings Monday on Laynce Nix’s homer. Had the Mets collected one or two key hits with two out earlier in Wednesday’s game, they might have avoided another extra-inning loss. But the Mets’ offense continues to operate sporadically, especially on the road. The Mets went 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position, and three of those at-bats were by Jason Bay, who continues to struggle at the plate. Bay went 0 for 4 and left four runners in scoring position with two out, and he stranded six runners in all. He was hitless in his 12 at-bats during the three-game series. His batting average sank to .238, and his spirits dropped even lower. “It’s painful,” he said. “There’s a lot of guys doing a lot of good things to help us win offensively, and I’m not one of them. I know I’m a big part of it and I want to go out there and work on stuff and hope it turns around, but right now it’s just a massive funk.” Bay seemed to be fighting himself as much as opposing pitchers and looked so lost at the plate that he was taken out in a double switch in the bottom of the seventh inning of a one-run game, an unusual move with a cleanup hitter. But Bay did not complain. “I completely understood it,” he said. “You’re scuffling a little bit and you want to help out, but I completely understand the move. That’s baseball. I went out there and put a cheerleading cap on and tried to help that way.” The Mets were trailing, 4-3, in the ninth but created a run when pinch-hitter Frank Catalanotto singled to center field, was sacrificed to second by Luis Castillo, went to third on a single by Angel Pagan and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jeff Francoeur. But Pagan was caught stealing with Jose Reyes at the plate to end the inning. In the 10th inning, the Mets went down in order. Then in the bottom of the 10th, Cabrera ripped a 3-1 fastball down the left-field line that hit the foul pole to end the game, although Cabrera thought the ball hit the facade of the upper deck and bounced back. “I thought I saw it go past the pole and I said, ‘Oh, that’s it, we win the game,’ ” Cabrera said, “and then it bounced back on the field and I was like, ‘Huh.’ But we still won.” David Wright got the Mets to 4-3 in the sixth inning when he hit his seventh home run of the season, tying Rod Barajas for the team lead. But Wright was removed from the game in the 10th because the Mets ran out of catchers. The emergency backup Fernando Tatis had to remain in the game in case anything happened to Barajas, who entered the game after Catalanotto pinch-hit for the starter, Henry Blanco. Jon Niese allowed four runs and a career-high 12 hits while pitching through the sixth inning. Hisanori Takahashi followed with three perfect innings. But the Mets fell to 15-13, and they are 4-8 on the road. “The bottom line is we’ve got to find a way to play good baseball on the road,” Wright said. The Mets return home for six games, starting with a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants. But before that is a day of rest, which Bay said might help. “I guess the off day comes at a good time for me, and hopefully I’ll get it turned around,” he said.