Mets fall below .500 in loss to Marlins

Terry Collins said he doesn't sit on the Mets bench and think about who's out of the lineup. Fair enough. But he didn't think too much of the way the guys he did have played Monday night.

The Mets were three-hit by fill-in Marlins starter Clay Hensley and four relievers, dropping a 4-1 makeup game at Citi Field that also dropped the Mets under .500 (47-48) for the first time since July 2 and half a game out of the NL East cellar.

"We didn't a do a very good job offensively tonight," Collins said. "[Hensley] did a good job; he changed speeds. We just have to pay more attention to what we might get to hit."

The only promising spot of offense came in the ninth, when the second of Willie Harris' hits, a forceout and a pair of walks loaded the bases. Jason Bay, mired in a 6-for-40 slump and a candidate to sit out had Carlos Beltran been healthy, got a decent piece of Leo Nuñez's fastball, but lined it to center for a fairly meaningless sacrifice fly.

"Struggling or not, those are the times you want to get up there and look for redemption," Bay said. "I put a good swing on it, I just hit it to the wrong part of the ballpark."

Nuñez retired Ronny Paulino on a slow bouncer to shortstop and the Mets dropped their third in four games since the All-Star break, with very little offense in any of the three defeats.

Chris Capuano (8-9) kept the Marlins hitless through 32/3 innings and nearly got an inside fastball for a strike three call on Hanley Ramirez that would have ended the fourth. He didn't get it, Ramirez singled and the Marlins struck for three quick runs after a walk, a smoked two-run double to left-center by Mike Stanton and an equally hard-hit single by former Met Mike Cameron.

That left it up to the patchwork Mets lineup, still without Beltran and Jose Reyes. It was further depleted in the first, when Scott Hairston fouled a ball off the top of his left foot. He hopped around in pain for a minute or two but stayed in, grounding to short to end the first after Harris had doubled with one out.

Hairston played another inning in right but came out. Despite his status as a bench player and occasional starter, Hairston's exit was still a blow to a weak order.

"When Scotty went down," Collins said, "it really hurt what we could do."

The Mets didn't get another hit off Hensley, who was making his first start since 2008 with the Padres.

Nick Evans singled leading off the seventh but was stranded. Harris, starting at second base for the first time this season, singled off Randy Choate in the ninth, and Choate issued two walks to bring the tying run to the plate, but it was the struggling Bay and not someone who could do some damage.

Bay did make a dangerous, sliding catch in the third to rob Cameron of a hit and Ruben Tejada fully extended to make a diving catch on Hensley in the fifth, but the Mets need offense.

Reyes and Beltran are scheduled to return tonight, when the Cardinals come to Citi Field. But Beltran may not be a Met for much longer, with the July 31 trade deadline creeping up.

As he put it after the game: "Someone else has to do it."

No one answered the call last night.