Mets bullpen flops in another loss to Phillies

The Mets' snoozing offense finally awoke from its slumber Saturday night, making way for the bullpen to take its turn as the team's weakest link.

The two are running stride for stride these days.

If it's not one thing, it's another for the reeling Mets, who have lost their last five games following their second straight defeat to the middling Phillies, 5-4, in front of 29, 170 at damp Citi Field.

Just 10 days after sitting four games above .500, the Mets, after their eighth loss in nine games, are all alone in the National League East cellar with the Subway Series looming on Monday at Yankee Stadium.

Scott Rice coughed up a one-run lead in the seventh and Kyle Farnsworth took the loss after allowing three straight two-out hits in the ninth, the last of which was a Ryan Howard run-scoring single over shortstop Wilmer Flores.

After managing just five runs in their previous four games, the Mets (16-19) broke out for four runs on seven hits — an eruption for them — but they also blew a golden opportunity to go ahead in the eighth.

Consecutive singles by David Wright and Curtis Granderson to start the inning and a sacrifice bunt by Chris Young put Triple-A Las Vegas call-up Eric Campbell, making his major league debut, in position to be the hero when Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg came out to the mound to meet with reliever Mike Adams.

Initially, catcher Carlos Ruiz signaled an intentional walk. But after only one ball out of the strike zone, the Phillies opted to pitch to Campbell, who ended up getting called out on strikes. After Flores walked to load the bases, pinch-hitter Bobby Abreu, a former Phillie, grounded back to the mound to end the threat.

After a dismal showing in Miami, in which the Mets were blanked over the final 23 innings en route to a sweep, they hoped returning home to Citi Field could serve as a tonic. Friday night was more of the same, two runs over 11 listless innings, but that changed a day later.

Wright had three hits and snapped a 136 at-bat homer-less stretch — the longest of his career — Granderson had two hits and Juan Lagares got on base three times.

It was all for naught, however, as the bullpen was unable to hold a lead and Farnsworth was again unreliable, drawing loud boos.

Dillon Gee was shaky early, yielding five hits and three runs over the first two innings and several other crisply hit drives, but fought his way through six gritty innings. As has been the case in most Mets losses, however, the lineup couldn't muster nearly enough offense to make him a winner, making Phillies right-hander Kyle Kendrick look like Roy Halladay until a sixth-inning uprising.

The Mets trailed six pitches into the game, Gee yielding consecutive singles to Ben Revere and Rollins before a Chase Utley sacrifice fly plated the second run. Domonic Brown's bloop single, just out of center fielder Juan Lagares' reach, plated the second run, before Gee fortunately escaped further trouble.

The right-hander was able to knock down a scorching drive right back through the box by Ruiz that would have plated two runs, and turned it into an out, before retiring Cody Asche on a groundout.

Wright pulled the Mets even in the bottom half, launching his second home run of the year, a booming shot to left-center field, that snapped a career-high 136 at-bat homer-less drought across 33 games. He launched the homer on an 0-2 change-up that sat up in the strike zone.

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