ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — There was no need to turn on the air conditioning the last two days at Tropicana Field: The Mets’ whiffing could have kept everybody cool.
Repeating the course they took Saturday, the Mets inflicted early damage and then went to sleep offensively. And Bartolo Colon wasn’t about to let the Mets lineup off the hook.
“We could have had a couple of games and didn’t get them,” manager Terry Collins said after a 4-3 loss to the Rays in the series rubber game.
The Mets (59-52) remained 1 ½ games ahead of the Nationals in the NL East and will open a four-game series against the Rockies on Monday at Citi Field.
On Sunday, the Mets struck out 13 times, running their total to 28 over two games. Of their six hits against Chris Archer and the Rays bullpen, only one went for extra bases.
Daniel Murphy stroked a two-run single in the second to give the Mets a 3-0 lead. Archer issued four walks in the inning, including one to Curtis Granderson that forced in the first run. Murphy then smacked a full-count slider for two runs. But the Mets were effectively finished for the afternoon offensively.
Archer ended with a four-hitter over six innings and struck out 10.
“There was a lot of talk about [Archer] being one of the best in the American League, and he certainly looked like it,” Collins said. “Outside of the one inning where he just lost command, great stuff.”
Colon (10-11) flushed a three-run lead and watched the Rays go ahead in the seventh on Richie Shaffer’s leadoff homer. Overall, Colon allowed four earned runs on nine hits over 6 ²/₃ innings.
“I’ve been working fine and I’m happy with my performance even though we lost,” said Colon, who has a 5.03 ERA on the road this season. “I’ve been working, tweaking some things in the bullpen and back on track. Hopefully we can get back on track as a team and win some games.”
Shaffer, a recent arrival from Triple-A, hammered a Colon fastball into the left-field seats for his second homer of the season.
“I made one mistake,” Colon said. “It was the wrong location. I left it and I threw it where the hitters like it and I paid the price.”
It was as second straight rough start by a Mets pitcher. On Saturday, Noah Syndergaard wasted the three-run lead he was given in the first inning and had one of his worst performances of the season, allowing five earned runs on eight hits over four innings. In Friday’s initial game of the series, Jacob deGrom allowed two earned runs over 6 ¹/₃ innings and watched the Mets win a see-saw battle on Wilmer Flores’ go-ahead RBI single in the ninth.
John Jaso’s two-run double in the fifth Sunday made it 3-3, and Colon prevented the go-ahead run from scoring by retiring Grady Sizemore and Evan Longoria in succession.
The rally started with consecutive singles by Shaffer and Brandon Guyer before Rene Rivera’s sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third. Jaso’s double ensued.
Rivera’s double in the third inning — on a ball Kelly Johnson misplayed in right field — led to the Rays scoring their first run. Jaso’s sacrifice fly scored Shaffer, who had opened the inning with a single.
“One of the things we’ve been burned by is the bottom of the orders,” Collins said. “You look up and the bottom of the order did the damage again today. Those are the guys we’ve got to get out and we didn’t do it.”
