NEW YORK _ There are times when pitching for the Mets seems like a job only suited for the most daring of thrill-seekers. How long can you go on a margin of error so thin, it threatens to blow away with one strong gust?
This was the conundrum faced by Jacob deGrom on Thursday afternoon, and then Jeurys Familia. The first pitcher thrived, the second pitcher buckled, and the result was yet another loss, 2-1 to the Rockies, courtesy of two ninth-inning runs. It was the second time in a row the Mets entered the ninth with the lead and left with a loss.
"Our pitchers live on the edge," manager Terry Collins said. "It's hard to do every night. ... We could have blown that game open with two ground balls and we weren't able to do it. That's what it comes down to."
In a slow-motion nightmare not even this reeling team saw coming, Familia and the Mets defense fell apart in the ninth, erasing the meager one-run lead their stagnant offense had eked out eons ago. It was also remarkable in that, until Wednesday's blown save against the Cardinals, Familia had saved 52 straight regular-season games. Thursday, he began a streak of another kind, notching his second blown save in a row. (Collins had previously said that Familia would be unavailable for Thursday's game, but Familia spoke to him in the morning to say he was willing and able).
"I don't have excuses," Familia said. "Everybody played hard. We'll get them tomorrow. We have to play better tomorrow."
Trevor Story led off the ninth with a single and David Dahl walked. That was followed by a series of misplays that probably kept the Mets shuddering deep into the night.
Daniel Descalso bunted with two strikes and the ball stopped in front of catcher Rene Rivera, who waited for it to go foul ... except it stayed on the chalk for a fair ball, loading the bases with no outs. Familia struck out Tony Wolters, but then Cristhian Adames hit a slow roller to the right side. The ball skipped off the leg of James Loney, who had ranged between first and second, allowing Story to score the tying run and keeping the bases loaded. Facing Charlie Blackmon, Familia bounced a wild pitch past Rivera to the backstop, bringing in Dahl with the go-ahead run and ending the closer's day. Hansel Robles got the last two outs.
The Mets went down in order in the bottom of the ninth against Rockies closer Carlos Estevez.
"It's tough," said Rivera, who said the bunted ball was right on the line and would have moved the runner to third regardless. "Stuff happens, you know? ... This is baseball and you're going to have tough stretches and [Familia] just hit two. ... It's one of those games that you have to bounce back."
It's unfair to lay all this at Familia's feet, though. The Mets' offense _ playing without the injured Jose Reyes and Yoenis Cespedes _ wasted a bounce-back performance from deGrom and did nothing to give the Mets pitchers some breathing room.
Despite threatening a few times, the Mets repeated the same refrain when it came to runners in scoring position. They wasted Rivera's leadoff double in the fifth and loaded the bases with no outs in seventh, only to get more of nothing. They entered the game hitting a major-league low .206 with runners in scoring position and went 1-for-9 on Thursday.
The Mets scored their only run in the second, when Rivera stroked Tyler Anderson's 0-and-2 fastball to right-center to score Loney, who had singled with one out. But Rivera _ not surprisingly overeager when you consider this team's inability to score runs _ tried to stretch it into a triple and was out by about five feet. He otherwise had the best offensive day of any Met, going 3-for-4 with two doubles.
DeGrom, who lowered his ERA to 2.56, meanwhile, continued to prove that even if his offense is in tatters, and even if his velocity is off from last year, he can still deal.
Coming off one of the worst performances of his career against the Marlins last Saturday, deGrom pitched seven innings, allowing no runs on five hits, with a walk and six strikeouts.
It should have been enough, but not for this team.
"Driving in runs is mental," Collins said. "The approach you have at the plate, your mindset of all you're trying to do is put the bat on the ball. ... We're just not doing it."
