Dickey gets no run support in loss

WASHINGTON -- The Mets have moved from sellers to spectators after the trade of Carlos Beltran, but they had more than a casual interest in a flurry of deals executed by the Nationals before Saturday's game.

The first involved Jerry Hairston Jr. -- the brother of the Mets' Scott -- being sent to the Brewers. A few hours later, Jason Marquis, the Nats' scheduled starting pitcher Saturday night, was dealt to the Diamondbacks.

So much for video and scouting reports. In Marquis' place, the Nationals started Yunesky Maya, rushed up from Triple-A Syracuse, and the Mets looked as though they didn't have a clue against him in a 3-0 loss that ended a five-game winning streak.

It marked the fifth time the Mets have been shut out this season. The starting pitchers in the other four games? Roy Halladay (April 7), Jair Jurrjens (April 16), Tim Lincecum (May 4) and Clayton Kershaw (July 7).

That surprising futility also made life difficult for R.A. Dickey, whose only mistake was serving up a three-run homer to slumping Jayson Werth in the first inning. That turned out to be enough to bury the Mets, who were silenced after scoring at least eight runs in four straight games, tying the club record.

"If I had three pitches back, we'd still be playing," Dickey said. "That's not a big percentage, out of 80 or 90 pitches. But at this level, it's enough to beat you."

Before a brief rally in the ninth inning, the Mets had six hits and only three at-bats with runners in scoring position. In his last 14 starts, Dickey is 4-4 despite a 3.02 ERA. Saturday night, he allowed six hits and three runs in six innings.

"It's just the nature of the beast sometimes," said Dickey, who fell to 5-9. "It's frustrating, but it's more than that. I expect more when I look at the stat line and see my name there."

The Mets, despite their troubles with Maya, still had a chance to get Dickey off the hook in the ninth inning. They loaded the bases against Drew Storen on a walk to David Wright, a one-out single by Jason Bay and a two-out single by Josh Thole. But pinch hitter Willie Harris looked at a slider for a called third strike to end it.

"It was a pitcher's pitch," Harris said. "He got me."

Dickey's lone blemish spoiled the whole night for the Mets. In the first inning, Rick Ankiel's leadoff single seemed harmless enough after Dickey got the next two outs. But he walked Michael Morse before teeing up a knuckleball to Werth on a full count.

Werth entered the game batting .219, but he's still dangerous, and he showed why in launching a three-run homer onto the grassy batter's eye in centerfield. It was Werth's 12th home run and raised his RBI total to 40 -- two numbers that are a bit light considering the Nats' $126-million investment.

Dickey said he threw that identical pitch -- same feel, same release -- to Ryan Zimmerman earlier and "the bottom dropped out of it." For Werth, the knuckler stayed up.

From that point, the Nats barely dented Dickey, who allowed only two more runners to reach scoring position in the next five innings. A pair of leadoff singles were erased by double plays and Dickey stranded two in the sixth before he was pulled for a pinch hitter in the seventh.

"There's no question that he's deserved to win more games than he has," manager Terry Collins said.

The Nationals' best move of the day appeared to be promoting Maya. In his 10th career start, he retired seven straight to open the game and didn't allow a hit until Wright's two-out single in the fourth inning.

Thole said the late pitching swap had "no effect" on what happened to the Mets, but Collins wasn't convinced. "I'm not sure" was his reply.

"The way we've been swinging the bats lately, I thought we would start scoring some runs," Collins said. "But we never did."