Misch makes one mistake as Mets lose to Astros, 3-2

HOUSTON - A weary-sounding Jerry Manuel, after watching another ineffective offensive performance by the Mets said, "This is pathetic."

By "this," Manuel was referring to the three singles - one by pitcher Pat Misch - that the Mets managed in a 3-2 loss to the Astros last night at Minute Maid Park.

"That's poor," Manuel said. "That's a very poor effort on our part offensively. Very poor."

Asked if he liked any of his hitters' approaches or at-bats, Manuel said: "Maybe Misch's approach. I think he got a hit with two strikes. Other than that, we've got to do better. Period. We've got to do better. This is . . . this is pathetic."

With the Mets leading 2-0, Carlos Lee hit a three-run home run off Misch in the seventh inning. It was a bad matchup for the Mets: righthanded slugger Lee against lefthanded soft-tosser Misch.

But what was Manuel to do? Misch had thrown only 68 pitches. Yes, Misch had just given up two hits, but they were consecutive bloop singles, one to right and one to left.

Unfortunately for the Mets, Misch threw one more pitch. Lee sent it far over the leftfield fence. With Mets batters affording their pitchers little margin for error, it was enough.

"Those two hits were soft and they found the right spots," Misch said. "We kind of decided to go in to Lee. He guessed right and crushed it."

Lee's 16th home run was enough to beat Misch (0-2, 3.00 ERA) in his second start of the season. Misch allowed four hits - a two-out double to Hunter Pence in the first and then none until Angel Sanchez and Pence hit their bloops to start the seventh before Lee's blast. Misch walked none and struck out one.

The Mets were stopped by Bud Norris (6-7, 5.23) and two relievers as the teams split the four-game series. The Mets moved on to Pittsburgh for a weekend series against the Pirates in the midst of an offensive slump that has persisted since the All-Star break.

In 33 games since the break, the Mets are hitting .211. They have scored 92 runs, an average of 2.8. Their record in those games is 12-21. It's the main reason they have fallen out of playoff contention, even if Manuel says he won't concede until they are mathematically eliminated.

"It's one of those things that I don't think a lot of times you can explain in baseball," said David Wright, who was 0-for-3 with a HBP. "We've had some guys in here that have had some good and some great years. Obviously, we're not getting it done right now. Sometimes you just can't put your finger on just one thing overall that everybody's doing. Individually, guys are scuffling. We're struggling . . . and it seems like everybody's gotten somewhat cold at the same time."

Manuel has tried everything he can think of to shake the Mets out of it: early batting practice, no batting practice, hitters' meetings, lineup shakeups. None of it has worked. So what's next?

"I guess I would say offensively we've tried a lot of different things," he said. "We haven't been able to come up with any solutions at this point. We've got to keep putting them out there. We think we have good players and hopefully they'll perform."

Other than Misch, the only Mets to get hits were Chris Carter, who had an RBI single to deep short in the Mets' two-run fourth inning, and Jose Reyes, who singled to center with one out in the eighth.

"It's difficult," Reyes said. "But we're trying. We're giving it 100 percent every night."