ST. LOUIS — This Colon fragrance could simply be called P.U.
When Bartolo Colon is bad, he often is brutal. And facing the best team in the major leagues on Saturday, the veteran right-hander had nothing over 89 pitches in the gruesome humidity.
Offering a reminder that not every pitching performance in this second half will be a gem for the Mets, Colon stumbled and the lineup was unproductive in a 12-2 loss to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
“I felt good,” Colon said. “But they were feeling better than me because they were connecting on everything I threw.”
The Mets (47-44) lost their second straight and will need a victory Sunday with Jon Niese on the mound to avoid a sweep heading into Washington for a three-game showdown with the first-place Nationals starting Monday.
In his second-worst start of the season, Colon allowed seven earned runs on eight hits with three walks and a hit batter over 4 ¹/₃ innings. The Cardinals turned the game into a runaway in the fifth, when Randal Grichuk hit a two-run homer against reliever Carlos Torres that made it 8-0. Grichuk’s three-run blast in the eighth against Alex Torres completed the scoring. Jason Heyward also had a huge night, with a 5-for-5 performance for the Cardinals.
“We’ve played so well, but this just goes to show that one of the things the [All-Star] break can do is just get you out of whack, and that wasn’t Bartolo Colon,” manager Terry Collins said. “This guy had only walked [11] guys all year, let alone the first guy of the game, so he showed a little rust and showed that he needed some work tonight.”
Colon (9-8) pitched three scoreless innings after a nightmarish first in which the Cardinals sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs. But Jhonny Peralta doubled leading off the fifth and Heyward followed with an RBI double to all but conclude Colon’s night.
In his previous start against the Cardinals, on May 20, Colon had his worst outing of the season, allowing nine runs (eight of which were earned) over 4 ¹/₃ innings. The right-hander’s ERA swelled to 4.86 with Saturday’s dreadful performance.
“I know they have a tough lineup,” Colon said. “This year they have been lucky, they have been good. I was lucky enough last year to beat them twice and they have beaten me this year twice.”
Michael Cuddyer finished with three hits, including a homer, against John Lackey (8-5), but the offense continued to sputter.
Before the game, Collins was asked about the possibility of switching up the leadoff spot. Curtis Granderson has handled the job about as well as Collins could have hoped, but ideally the veteran outfielder would be filling the role for which he was signed: hitting in the middle of the lineup and driving in runs.
Granderson blasted his team-leading 14th homer on Friday, and has been the most productive hitter in the Mets lineup over the past six weeks. The Mets could use that pop in the middle of the order, where Lucas Duda and Cuddyer have slumped, but Collins has grown weary of answering questions about a potential switch in the lineup.
“Come up with a different leadoff hitter,” Collins said before the game. “Everybody keeps asking me, ‘Why don’t you put [Granderson] in the middle,’ but who are you leading off? Until we come up with that guy who can do what he does, he is going to stay right there.”
