Marlins 3
Mets 0
MIAMI – Smart move having the Mets and Marlins move up today’s game from 3 p.m. to 1 p.m. No sense in delaying what would appear to be the inevitable.
The Mets have lost 11 straight games, while the Marlins have won nine straight and 10 in a row against the Mets. Hey, if you’re a Met fan, at least an earlier start today won’t kill your whole afternoon.
There isn’t much news with the Mets right now, not when it comes to on-field play. The only thing that really changes each day is the number when you write the phrase “have now lost [number] in a row.” Right now, the digit’s at 11.
The latest defeat was a 3-0 spanking by the Marlins, making it 16 losses in the Mets’ last 17 games. Same formula as it’s been – no hitting, bad fielding.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Mike Piazza admitted.
The Mets are winless in September (0-7) and winless since Art Howe’s veterans-only meeting last Saturday (0-4), which has inspired nothing other than a grand total of five runs and 13 hits in the four games. The Mets also have continued to look listless, lethargic and anything else synonymous, which doesn’t speak well for the manager’s inspirational abilities.
At this point, the misery is almost staggering – the Mets haven’t held a lead in 58 innings.
Fifty-eight innings! Caught the energy yet?
“We’re all frustrated,” Piazza said. “Definitely embarrassed.”
Still, you might want to stay tuned since the Mets are now only three straight defeats away from tying the Diamondbacks for baseball’s longest losing streak this season. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Arizona lost 14 straight from July 9-25.
Meanwhile, at 60-78, the Mets are only 1½ games ahead of the cellar-dwelling Expos in the race for last place. And you thought there wouldn’t be any September excitement.
“We’ll come back [today] on Todd Zeile’s birthday and try to win a game,” Howe said, referring to the reserve who turns 39 today. “Maybe that’s what we need.”
Maybe they also need a hit or two. Incredibly, for the third straight game, the Mets were held hitless through the first three innings. This time, Josh Beckett turned the trick into the fifth, when Piazza led off with a double. Three batters later, he was stranded when Jason Phillips bounced into an inning-ending double play.
In the sixth, the clutch futility was even uglier. With runners on second and third and nobody out, Eric Valent struck out, Wilson Delgado fanned and Cliff Floyd grounded out. The Mets finished with four hits.
“It’s just a team-wide slump,” Howe said before the game. “You lose 10 in a row; it’s a complete team effort. Offense one time, defense one time, pitching another time . . . When you’re no longer in it, maybe subconsciously it takes something away from players. I don’t know.”
Howe will shake up the lineup again today, resting Piazza (sore knee) and Floyd (day game after night game). Then again, as Piazza correctly noted, “I think it goes beyond moves and lineups and switches. We just need to desperately squeak out a win.”
Howe also said he would not consider holding another meeting right now, saying, “No, they know what’s going on. We’re a hit short and a play away.”
Jae Seo, meanwhile, pitched decently, allowing three runs (two earned) in five innings. One of the runs scored when Delgado allowed Paul LoDuca’s third-inning grounder to scoot through his legs. Two innings later, LoDuca blasted a two-run homer. And it’s 11 and counting for the Mets.
