NEW YORK -- Do yourself a favor and take Sandy Alderson’s advice: Drink a beer and avoid reading this ... or any other Mets-related items in the blogosphere.
Zack Wheeler struggled against the most anemic offense in the majors and the Mets mustered two hits en route to a 5-0 loss to the lowly San Diego Padres on Saturday at Citi Field.
Zack Wheeler
#45 SP
New York Mets
2014 STATS
- GM14
W2
L7
BB34
K79
- ERA4.38
Facing Jesse Hahn in his second major league start, the Mets mustered a leadoff infield single in the first inning by Ruben Tejada and nothing more. Hahn -- Matt Harvey’s former teammate at Fitch High School in Groton, Conn. -- held the Amazin’s hitless during the rest of his six-inning, 87-pitch outing.
Even Tejada’s hit could have been a recorded out. Shortstop Everth Cabrera elected to try to barehand the grounder and was unable to grab it cleanly.
The Mets' only other hit was a Lucas Duda bloop single to left field with one out in the ninth.
The Mets (30-38) actually stranded the bases loaded in the fourth -- courtesy of David Wright getting hit by a pitch and walks to Bobby Abreu and Taylor Teagarden. Interspersed were strikeouts by Duda, Chris Young and Matt den Dekker. Den Dekker’s K ended the inning and left the bases full.
Young went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts as his average dropped to .196.
Wheeler surrendered four runs on six hits and three walks in five innings. He departed for pinch hitter Andrew Brown to open the bottom of the fifth with the Mets trailing 4-0 and his pitch count at 100.
The final run against Wheeler came on Hahn’s two-out, dunk RBI single to right field in the fourth. It was the first hit of Hahn’s professional career -- majors or minors.
San Diego entered the day having scored 19 runs in 11 games in June. No other team had scored fewer than 30 runs this month.
The ninth-inning hit avoided it becoming the second time the Mets had been victims of a one-hit shutout this season. Aaron Harang, Luis Avilan and Jordan Walden combined on the feat for the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field on April 18.
The Mets are now 2-9 since June 3.
In a pinch: Curtis Granderson was out of the starting lineup for a third straight game with a left calf injury, but he pinch hit for the second time during that span. Granderson batted in the bottom of the seventh with den Dekker on first base and two outs. Granderson popped out to shallow right field.
What’s next: Daisuke Matsuzaka (3-0, 2.95 ERA) opposes right-hander Ian Kennedy (5-7, 3.63) in Sunday’s 1:10 p.m. rubber game.