Those Mets

WINNING STREAK FINALLY ENDS

METS CRUSHED IN GAME 2 BUT REMAIN IN FIRST

The Mets’ clubhouse was nearly silent. Players sat glumly and stared at their lockers, or stood and answered questions about plays that were not made, balls that were not hit and pitches that missed the mark. The mood was somber, but the gloominess seemed to express a resolve that was absent most of last season as the losses kept mounting. The Mets had just won 8 straight games and 11 of their last 13, and they clearly enjoyed that feeling. So after losing, 10-0, to the Phillies on Saturday as Roy Halladay tossed a three-hit shutout, the Mets acted as if the loss was not only an aberration, but also unacceptable. For an hour after the game, there was not a smile to be seen. “We didn’t play good, and the results speak for themselves,” closer Francisco Rodriguez said. “Last year, when we lost a game, let’s say we’d get used to it. I don’t want to say we didn’t care. We did care, but it was like, ‘O.K., turn the page.’ Right now, we had some momentum going, and so don’t want this at all. That’s a good feeling to have.” Among the most annoyed Mets was Mike Pelfrey, Saturday’s starting pitcher, who extended his scoreless streak to 27 innings, only for it end when the Phillies broke through with a run in the fourth inning. The run was quickly followed by five more in the inning. When the dam cracked, the runs came in a torrent. The six runs in that inning were three times as many as he had allowed in his previous five starts. Pelfrey’s record fell to 4-1. Other annoyed Mets in the clubhouse were shortstop Jose Reyes and second baseman Alex Cora, who were each disappointed in their inability to catch a pair of balls in that decisive inning that might have prevented Pelfrey’s collapse. Also unhappy was David Wright, who doubled off Halladay in the fourth inning, but got into a heated argument with Ron Kulpa, the home-plate umpire, two innings later. “It’s just part of the game,” Wright said. “You have two guys that think they’re right, and that will obviously make for a little bit of a confrontation. But I have all the respect in the world not just for him but for all the umpires.” Wright was upset at one of the called strikes in that at-bat and eventually struck out, but it was not as if Halladay needed the help. He was sharp, especially with his changeup, but there was a sense going around the clubhouse that the Mets felt they could have gotten to him, at least a little bit. Although Halladay recorded his 17th career shutout and improved to 5-1 while lowering his earned run average to 1.47, the Mets hit some balls hard. They also had a few runners on base early and forced him to throw a lot of pitches in the first few innings. But once the Phillies got those six runs, Halladay knew how to put the game away. “When you get a six-spot with a guy like Halladay on the mound, it’s pretty much ballgame,” said Jeff Francoeur, the Mets’ right fielder. The six-spot in question began rather quietly as Phillies second baseman Chase Utley hit a flare over the head of Reyes, who dived to attempt to make the catch and actually had the ball in the palm of his glove. But he dropped the ball before landing, and Utley had a single. “I have to make that play,” Reyes said. “You can’t give away any outs to those guys.” Ryan Howard followed with a single to right that sent Utley to second, and Jayson Werth hit a bloop to shallow center. Like Reyes before him, Cora had the ball in his glove for an instant, only to drop it. Utley was running to third before Cora dropped the ball, so if Cora had caught it, Utley probably would have been doubled off second. Instead, he scored the first run off Pelfrey in 22 days. “I turned around and saw Utley running, and I was like, Wow, that’s a double play right there,” Cora said. “But it happens.” Neither play was easy, and both were ruled hits, as they should have been. But both players knew they could have made the plays. “If it hits them in the glove, you’d like to see them catch it,” Mets Manager Jerry Manuel said. “But those are tough plays.” With runners at first and second, Pelfrey struck out Raul Ibanez, but the Phillies followed with four straight hits, including one by Halladay, with two outs. Shane Victorino then hit a three-run homer to right field on a pitch that was right over the plate and above the belt. The night before, Francoeur and Jason Bay made two fine catches at the wall to help starter Jon Niese. But a day later, the plays went the other way, and Pelfrey could not make the damage disappear. “A couple of plays didn’t go my way,” he said. “It happens. I’ve got to come back and get the next guy, and I didn’t do that.” And so the scoreless-innings streak and the winning streak ended, which made the Mets quiet and unhappy, at least for one day.