Terry Collins Searching For Answers As Mets Continue To Tumble
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — The Mets got 13 hits and another encouraging outing from rookie Jacob deGrom. That still wasn't enough to overcome the homer-happy Dodgers.
Adrian Gonzalez went deep for the third straight game, Yasiel Puig and Hanley Ramirez hit back-to-back shots and Los Angeles defeated New York 4-3 Wednesday night to hand the sputtering Mets their sixth loss in seven games.
"DeGrom was real good tonight," manager Terry Collins said. "The home run balls hurt him. But he changed speeds and used his breaking ball and went back and got a little more when he needed it."
Hyun-Jin Ryu scattered five hits over the first five innings and struck out Curtis Granderson with the bases loaded to end the third. That left the Mets 6 for 41 (.146) with the bags full this season.
"If I could explain it, we would do something differently," Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy said.
The loss dropped the last-place Mets to 20-25. They're 9-14 at Citi Field and have fallen to 5-14 in May.
"I wish I had the answer," Collins said. "We talk a lot about big chances, big opportunities. We've just got to have somebody break loose. We had some chances. It's difficult to say. I wish I had an answer for you outside of, one of the things we continue to talk about is trying to put the ball in play. Tonight we did that. We just didn't hit any holes."
Yanks had no business winning Wednesday, Mets should've won. Good teams find a way, bad teams do not
— Jerry Recco (@JerryRecco) May 22, 2014
Mets captain David Wright went 3-for-5 but struck out twice, including in the game's final at-bat. Wright is stuck at two home runs on the season, rough for a team starved for some big knocks.
"It's not like my whole game revolves around hitting home runs," Wright said, according to the New York Post. "If that was my game, yeah, I would be a little worried. The idea is to be productive."
Pitching in place of injured Dillon Gee, deGrom (0-2) wasn't quite as effective as last Thursday, when he threw seven impressive innings in a 1-0 loss to the New York Yankees. The shaggy-haired righty gave up three solo homers over six innings this time in his second major league start.
"I felt good. I located the ball well but just had a couple of mistakes," deGrom said.
Eric Campbell hit his first major league homer for the Mets. Wright, Juan Lagares and Wilmer Flores each had three hits.
Los Angeles managed only five — but all of them went for extra bases.
"Who needs singles, right?" catcher A.J. Ellis said.
Ryu (4-2) came off the disabled list and pitched the Dodgers to their 11th victory in 12 meetings with the Mets dating to July 1, 2012. Ramirez drove in two runs and Los Angeles enjoyed most of the vocal support from the 23,721 fans at Citi Field, many of whom turned out to cheer Ryu.
The lefty from South Korea, sidelined since late April with shoulder inflammation, went six innings and improved to 4-0 in five starts away from home this season.
"Like he was never on the DL at all," Ellis said. "He was in razor form."
Lagares tripled in the ninth and scored as second baseman Dee Gordon made a nice play on Murphy's groundout. Kenley Jansen struck out Wright to end it.
Campbell hit a two-run shot in the sixth, when the Mets finally got to Ryu with four hits. Chris Young's double-play grounder prevented what could have been a much bigger inning.
Ryu had thrown 33 straight shutout innings on the road since Sept. 24, 2013, at San Francisco.
"It felt good. I had swung through the changeup earlier and I thought he would come back with it," said Campbell, who is 7 for 16 with five RBIs in his first seven games. "I've got the ball. I don't know how they tracked it down."
Brandon League protected a 3-2 lead in the seventh, retiring Young with runners at second and third to end the inning. Wright's two-out double squirted a few feet behind a diving Puig in right, but Murphy didn't appear to be running hard all the way and was held up at third base.
Los Angeles added an insurance run in the eighth when the Mets botched an opportunity for an inning-ending double play. Pinch-hitter Chone Figgins had a leadoff double against Jeurys Familia and scored on Ramirez's comebacker with runners at the corners.
"I got a little confused because I didn't want to throw it away," Familia said.
Brian Wilson worked a scoreless inning and Jansen got three outs for his 13th save in 15 attempts.
Gonzalez homered into the second deck in right field leading off the second, his 12th of the season. The slugger hit a two-run shot in the series opener Tuesday night and has nine hits in his past 16 at-bats.
"I went where I wanted to go with the high fastball. He caught up to it," deGrom said.
NOTES: Justin Turner started at 3B for the Dodgers and went 0 for 4 against his former team. ... Lagares returned from the Dominican Republic and was back in the lineup after missing Tuesday night's game because of a death in the family. ... Collins said C Travis d'Arnaud (concussion) was feeling much better and passed an impact test. "Tomorrow he'll be examined by a doctor and see how he's doing and we'll find out what the next step is," Collins said. ... A college shortstop, deGrom singled to start the fifth and has the only two hits for Mets pitchers in 74 at-bats this season. ... LHP Jonathon Niese (2-3, 2.54 ERA) faces Dodgers RHP Zack Greinke (7-1, 2.03) in the series finale Thursday night.
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