After losing with their best pitcher on the mound Saturday, the Mets fell with their hottest pitcher going yesterday. Dillon Gee took the loss, the bullpen turned a nailbiter into a ninth-inning rout, and when it was over the Mets had taken an 11-3 beating at the hands of the Tigers, to cap a three-game sweep before 32,084 at Citi Field.
The Mets mustered just four runs in getting swept by the AL’s top team. And Gee (9-9), who had been one of baseball’s best pitchers for the past three months, was solid, but unspectacular in losing for only the second time since July 22.
“They just pitched great and we didn’t capitalize on any situations we had a chance in,’’ manager Terry Collins said. “We didn’t get a lot of guys on. They pitched us tough. We didn’t swing the bats the way we have been or are capable of.’’
A day after Matt Harvey coughed up a season-high 13 hits, Gee scattered a season-high 10, and allowed four earned runs on two-run home runs by Miguel Cabrera (who went 3-for-4 with a walk) in the first inning and Andy Dirks in the sixth. Dirks’ blast turned a one-run Mets lead into a 4-3 deficit, but it was LaTroy Hawkins’ one-third-inning, five-run debacle in the ninth that blew it open.
“I didn’t have much command today,” said Gee, who fell behind Triple Crown candidate Cabrera 2-0 in the first and saw him crush his next pitch into the second deck in left and down a hallway beneath one of the restaurants for a 2-0 lead. “I knew it was going to be a battle. … I fell behind a lot of guys, I wasn’t commanding any of the offspeed stuff for strikes, and it makes it tough facing a team like that.’’
And a hitter like Cabrera.
“There’s a lot of great players in our game. [Cabrera is] obviously the best hitter in baseball, no question. Nobody does what he does,’’ Collins said.
“We were trying to go down and away. I made a big mistake. You can’t do that to [Cabrera],’’ said Gee, who had been 4-1 with a 2.57 ERA since June 22. “He made me pay for it.’’
The Mets cut the lead in half in the third and erased it in the fourth. Daniel Murphy hit a two-out, broken bat RBI single, and rookie Travis d’Arnaud hit his first big league homer the very next inning, a two-run shot that just carried out to left-center to give the Mets a 4-3 lead and elicit a curtain call.
But the lead was short-lived, with Gee surrendering Dirks’ two-run homer in the sixth and eight straight Tigers reaching safely in a seven-run ninth, with Hawkins entering a one-run game and allowing five runs.
Victor Martinez stroked an RBI single and Dirks drew a bases-loaded walk to chase Hawkins. Omar Infante greeted Scott Atchison with an RBI single and a wild pitch with Ramon Santiago up plated Bryan Holaday. Singles by Santiago and Matt Tuiasosopo, followed by Austin Jackson’s sacrifice fly made it 11-3.
Tigers starter Rick Porcello (10-7) — a Morristown, N.J., native and Seton Hall Prep grad — allowed just four hits and three runs in seven innings, continuing the Mets’ offensive malaise. They have mustered just five runs in their four-game losing streak, and were outhit 41-17 in the series.
“We’ve got a couple guys we need to swing the bats, and right now we’re not getting offense. … A lot of them are overanxious and they’re swinging at balls that aren’t strikes,’’ Collins said. “Right now we’re not swinging the bats very well, be it the approach isn’t there or the other team’s pitching good. It could be one or both.’’
