LOS ANGELES — The Mets looked like a team in disarray Monday night, and the aftershocks from their five-error disaster were still being felt yesterday.
A slew of injuries that left Jerry Manuel without three infield regulars provided a convenient cover, but even Manuel wasn’t sugar-coating how awful his club looked in handing a 3-2 win to the Dodgers in 11 innings.
It was the type of hideous loss that can reverberate for days and even weeks, and Manuel knew it.
“I’m anxious to see how we bounce back, because that was a bad one,” the manager said before last night’s John Maine-Chad Billingsley matchup at Dodger Stadium. “Very bad.”
Bad almost doesn’t even begin to describe the Mets’ “Bad News Bears” performance in the opener of this three-game series, particularly the calamitous 11th inning.
From Ryan Church somehow missing the bag at third base on what likely would have been the winning run to Carlos Beltran’s verbal mixup with Angel Pagan in left field to Jeremy Reed’s throwing error that ultimately ended it, the Mets were a mess in the final frame.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Beltran said of the Mets’ 11th-inning follies. “To battle the whole game and have a chance to take the lead . . . I don’t know what happened. All I know is that it’s bad.”
The loss was so bad that it even had the Mets pointing fingers and the manager calling out one of his players publicly, something no team needs — particularly one battered by injury clinging to first place.
Manuel started the blame game afterward by blasting Church for missing third on what would have been the go-ahead run. Church was on his way to scoring easily on Pagan’s fourth hit of the night when Church stepped in front of the bag. Dodgers third baseman Mark Loretta alertly called for the ball, prompting third-base umpire Mike DiMuro to call a stunned Church out to end the half-inning.
Manuel was so dismayed he didn’t even bother running out to DiMuro to get an explanation, relying instead on the word of Mets third-base coach Razor Shines that the call was correct.
Manuel then let Church have it when talking to the media afterward. How mad was Manuel? He wouldn’t even refer to Church by name when talking about the pivotal play.
“The guy missed third base, and it’s unbelievable,” Manuel said. “I can’t explain why or how or anything, but he actually missed the base.”
The dreadful defense prompted Manuel to vow that the Mets will go back to basics and stress defensive fundamentals on a daily basis in hopes of making Monday’s awfulness a distant memory.
“The sooner we get past that, the better,” Manuel said. “The best thing about baseball is that every day is a new day.”
The Mets can only hope Monday night wasn’t a season-killer.
