Perez, bullpen struggle as Cubs beat Mets

The Mets went into last night’s game having won two in a row and four of their last six, a modest stretch built on superb starting pitching. They looked to Oliver Perez to continue the good vibes against the Cubs, who were reeling with four losses in a row.

Perez wasn’t great and he wasn’t horrible. He was . . . eh. Good enough to win on some nights, not good enough to win on this night as the Mets lost to the Cubs, 9-3, at Citi Field.

Perez (0-2, 3.71 ERA) allowed three runs (two earned) on eight hits and three walks with four strikeouts in five innings. He lost mostly because the Mets got next to nothing done against Carlos Silva, one of the worst pitchers in baseball over the last two seasons but who has found his form with the Cubs.

Perez also was done in by middle relievers Manny Acosta and Raul Valdes, who turned a 3-1 game into a 6-1 game in the seventh before the Mets unpacked their bats against the Cubs’ bullpen in a much too-little, too-late charge. The Cubs tacked on three runs in the ninth against Hisanori Takahashi. Mets fans in the announced crowd of 25,684 braved a 26-minute rain delay at the start. They were cranky at times, booing 3-4 hitters David Wright and Jason Bay when each struck out in different innings.

The Mets managed just one run on two hits in six innings against Silva, a high-priced reclamation project acquired in an offseason trade with Seattle for outfielder Milton Bradley. Silva, signed to a four-year, $48-million contract before the 2008 season, went 5-18 with a 6.82 ERA in two years in Seattle. But he has been outstanding in three outings for the Cubs (2-0, 0.95).

The Mets’ hits off Silva were Rod Barajas’ second-inning solo home run into the second deck in leftfield and Bay’s single to left in the sixth. Silva walked two, hit a batter and struck out four.

Mets starters had a 0.95 ERA in the previous six games. They weren’t asking Perez for that, but he was part of it, having allowed one run in 61/3 innings to St. Louis in his last outing.

Perez struck out Ryan Theriot to open the game. The next play by rookie Ike Davis is the stuff legend is made of, especially in the highlights-available-on-demand era. Jeff Baker sent a foul pop toward the Mets’ dugout. Davis, in his third major-league game, made it over to the railing and leaned in. He caught the ball and tumbled head over feet before landing right side up as if he’d spent most of his off hours practicing the maneuver.

Oddly, no Met in that part of the dugout moved to intercept the phenom in case he was about to crack his skull; one player did manage to cover his own head with his glove. But Davis didn’t need any help. The Cubs took a 1-0 lead in the third. Wright botched a leadoff grounder by Theriot, leading to an unearned run on Marlon Byrd’s sacrifice fly.

After Barajas tied it, Alfonso Soriano (3-for-4, triple, home run, three RBIs) led off the fourth with a triple and scored on Geovany Soto’s single.

Soriano singled in a run off Perez in the fifth to make it 3-1 and hit a two-run homer off Acosta (recalled earlier in the day to replace injured Ryota Igarashi) in the seventh.