Fans that remember Rey Ordonez’ Gold Glove run and record-breaking defense can only look at the Met shortstop this season and ask: What’s wrong with him? Ordonez was wondering the same thing himself yesterday, a look of disbelief painted on his face after booting a routine Peter Bergeron grounder in the sixth for his career-high third error of the game.
The Mets’ defense has been a sieve this season. They lead the major leagues with 19 errors, and yesterday they left 46,991 at Shea appalled by five errors that led to six unearned runs in a 9-8 loss to Montreal. No culprit has been worse in the field than Ordonez, whose club-record-tying three errors swelled his season total to seven, the most in the majors.
“Nothing you can say. I just couldn’t catch the ball. No excuse. I stink,” Ordonez said. “Seven errors in [11] games, it’s unbelievable. There’s nothing you can do but work hard and play better. I’ve got errors because I’m human, but not like that, basic ground balls. It’s unbelievable. Now I feel bad. I don’t know what to say. It’s just terrible.”
His disbelief is understandable. His three errors tied a club record, last matched by Lenny Harris on July 27, 2000. It’s hard to comprehend defense this bad from a fielder this good, one that won three straight Gold Gloves from 1997-99. He had just four errors in ’99, and started a string of 101 straight errorless games, a record for big-league shortstops.
But his errors have steadily increased, from six in 2000 to a dozen last year, to seven so far this year, a decline the Mets can ill afford.
“That’s a real slump,” said the superstitious Ordonez, who threw away the offending leather. “I threw my glove away. I got a new one already. Maybe I should cut my hands off, too; go to Kmart and get some new ones.”
The Mets had their worst fielding performance in six years. They committed three errors for six unearned runs in the third inning. Ordonez’ flubbed backhand of a Chris Truby grounder didn’t cost them a run, but his next error did, when he dropped a relay from catcher Vance Wilson that would have caught Jose Vidro at second and ended the fourth.
Still, his sixth-inning error was most symbolic. After Bergeron’s grounder took an odd hop and handcuffed him, he stared at the ball with a look of utter bewilderment, as if wondering how this could happen to him.
