Mets can't come back from early deficit

HOUSTON -- Terry Collins played a daring game of Texas Hold 'Em against the Astros Tuesday night. But the Mets didn't reward their manager's gamble in a 6-3 loss at Minute Maid Park.

Collins used flu-ridden Lucas Duda to bat for starter Jon Niese in the fourth inning with runners on first and third and two outs and the Mets trailing 5-2. Duda struck out against lefthander J.A. Happ.

Niese was not injured, so it was a bold move by Collins to remove his starter after just three innings. If Duda failed, Collins would be calling on his bullpen to hold the Astros for at least five innings while the Mets attempted to rally.

The Mets did have seven comeback wins in April. But even though the bullpen did its job -- holding Houston to one run for those five innings -- the Mets fell short against Happ (2-1) and three relievers in dropping their second game in a row.

"When you're in a game where you're down five and you have a chance to tie it, I think you have to take the opportunity," Collins said.

Niese (2-1) allowed two long home runs -- a two-run shot off the leftfield foul pole by Jed Lowrie in the first inning and a three-run blast by Chris Snyder in the second off the train tracks in deeper left.

"Looking back, that Lowrie pitch I kind of regret throwing him a fastball there," Niese said. "I wanted to throw him a curveball, but threw it up and in on him and he got it. The Snyder one, he just ambushed me on the first pitch."

Niese threw 60 pitches in his shortest outing since Sept. 29, 2010, when he went 2 2/3 innings against the Brewers.

Asked if he was shocked to get pinch hit for in the fourth, Niese said: "Yeah, kind of. Obviously, the competitiveness in me wanted to stay in the game there. I put up a zero . I felt my stuff was good enough to keep the team in the game, but that's not the way it worked out."

The Mets began to claw back from the 5-0 deficit in the fourth. Justin Turner, starting at second base in place of the resting Daniel Murphy, doubled to lead off the inning. Scott Hairston walked with one out before Andres Torres and Josh Thole delivered back-to-back two-out RBI singles to make it a 5-2 game.

That's when Collins called on Duda as the potential tying run. The Mets' rightfielder, who didn't start for the second straight night because of the flu, was 5-for-25 (.200) with no home runs against lefthanders going in. He had never faced Happ.

Duda took a pair of strikes and a pair of balls before swinging through a slider to end the inning.

The Mets made it 5-3 in the fifth when Hairston's two-out single drove in Turner, who had walked. With the tying runs on base, Ike Davis (1-for-4) struck out to end the inning. Davis stayed in the batter's box for a good five seconds after flailing at a slider.

"It was a big part of the game," said Davis, who is batting .188. "If I get a hit here, things might have been different. My second strikeout in a row. I had nowhere to go but to first base. So that's why."

The Mets had only one more hit the rest of the way, an eighth-inning single by David Wright. He was erased on a double play.

So maybe Collins was right to take the shot when he did.