Mets' Wright would rather have wins than stats

Mike Pelfrey was getting impatient Thursday waiting for David Wright to return to the card table, so he playfully began to mock the conversation the Mets' third baseman was having at his locker.

"Yeah, the 100 RBIs are good," Pelfrey yelled across the room, "but it's secondary to the team winning."

Pelfrey's impersonation was pretty accurate, as Wright did his best to minimize the accomplishment while talking with a reporter. There was no reason for him to be modest, however.

When Wright reached the 100-RBI plateau in the first game of Wednesday's doubleheader, he did it for the fifth time in his six full seasons - and became the only player in Mets history to do it more than three times.

But with the Mets stumbling to 77-82 after last night's 9-2 loss to the Brewers, a defeat that guaranteed a losing season, hitting triple-digits was not much of a consolation prize for Wright.

"Just being in New York, you learn from the fans, and the organization, that you don't want guys that can go out there and put up these numbers and at the end of the day don't win," Wright said. "It's been very tough for me to separate the two.

"It's tough for me to look at my personal season, what I've been able to do, whether it's this year or the past, and separate that from what the team's done. There's very little enjoyment to be had when you personally get to certain numbers but don't get it done as a team, especially being in New York."

The Mets' overall failure this season, however, can't be pinned on Wright. Entering yesterday, they had scored only 644 runs, which ranked 14th in the National League, and Wright, with 28 homers and 100 RBIs, was responsible for a large share of that production.

Too often this season, Wright, who has played in 154 games, was left without Jason Bay (95 games), Carlos Beltran (64) and even Jose Reyes (130).

"It's really tough to drive in 100 and he seems to do it pretty easily," Ike Davis said. "How could you be a critic of David Wright? What more do you want from a guy? No matter what happens, he's had an amazing year. We haven't really been the best offense, and to drive in 100, that's impressive."

Wright entered Thursday tied for eighth in the NL in RBIs, but the Nationals' Adam Dunn (103) was the only other player with at least 100 RBIs for a team that was lower than eighth overall in runs scored. Carlos Gonzalez and Albert Pujols were tied for first with 117 RBIs; the Rockies and Cardinals had scored a total of 768 and 720 runs, respectively.

"It's never been that important to me to hit certain numbers each year," Wright said. "I think there's so many variables that go along with that.''

Notes & quotes: The grievance hearings involving Francisco Rodriguez's efforts to recover his lost salary from the Mets will begin Oct. 18, a date determined after lawyers for MLB and the Players Association met Thursday in New York. With K-Rod awaiting more court appearances stemming from his alleged assault of his fiancee's father, the Mets have refused to pay him more than $3 million this season, a sum that K-Rod is trying to recover with help from the Players Association . . . Dillon Gee (2-2) took the loss. Four of the Brewers' nine runs were unearned.