Mets have no answer for lowly Astros

Things have become so bad in Flushing, even two-run deficits are insurmountable now.

The Mets, looking to improve on their one-game winning streak, failed to beat the lowly Houston Astros Tuesday night, falling, 6-1, at Citi Field and dropping to 1-7 at home this season.

The Mets (5-12) are tied with Seattle for the worst record in baseball.

Before the game, manager Terry Collins cautioned against taking the Astros (6-11) lightly, saying: "Don't make no mistake about it, they can beat you. So we've got to prepare ourselves." Unfortunately for him, his players didn't heed his warning.

The Mets stayed close, trailing 3-1 to start the eighth. But Houston scored three runs in the inning, aided by Bobby Parnell's balk and a two-run single by Angel Sanchez.

"We've got to stop it," Collins said of his team's inability to pull out victories. "I'm very concerned about it . . . Late in the game, we continue to give up big numbers and it's killing us."

Starter Jonathon Niese (0-3, 5.87 ERA) did not pitch poorly but again failed to earn his first win of the season, giving up two runs and seven hits, walking five and striking out three.

Coming into the game, Niese was 0-4 with a 7.67 ERA (25 earned runs in 291/3 innings) in his previous six games dating to last season. The lefthander also allowed his first stolen base in 37 starts -- a franchise record dating to May 13, 2009 -- to Michael Bourn in the first.

"I really didn't have a very good feel of anything," said Niese, who denied feeling any pain. "The grip on the ball was kind of rough, I couldn't make an adjustment a lot of the times. My whole body just didn't feel right. My feet, the rubber, everything, my mechanics, was just a little off today. I really didn't feel that comfortable."

Collins had hoped Tuesday would signal a turnaround for Niese, a pitcher he believes is too good to have such bad numbers, and his ballclub. But neither happened. Niese was pulled after six innings with his team trailing 2-0 and it took the Mets seven innings to put a run on the board. Carlos Beltran belted a solo home run, his third of the season, off lefthander Wandy Rodriguez (1-2) to pull the Mets to within 3-1. But that was the only misstep for Rodriguez, who struck out a season-high seven batters in seven innings.

The Mets caught a break in the eighth when Jose Reyes reached first base on a throwing error by third baseman Chris Johnson, but Josh Thole was called out on strikes and Reyes was called out on a questionable forceout at second base on a ground ball hit by David Wright in which second baseman Bill Hall dropped the throw.

Wright, who went 0-for-4, is hitless in his past 16 at-bats, dating to April 14. The Mets had just four hits in all.

"When things aren't going well, you try to do too much," said leftfielder Scott Hairston, who went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts and had a costly error when a fly ball hit off the heel of his glove, resulting in an Astros run in the seventh. "And we're all trying very hard. We're doing our work, we're in the cage, we're doing all we can in preparation."

With mounting losses, some Mets can't help but anticipate the return of leftfielder Jason Bay, who went 4-for-4, with two, two-run home runs in a rehab assignment Tuesday.

Said Angel Pagan: "We all know what kind of offense Jason Bay brings . . . We're all looking forward for that here. He's a big piece of this lineup and I know with him in the lineup healthy, we're going to do a lot of damage."