Wright loyal to Mets, who lose another to Braves

ATLANTA - It wasn't easy for David Wright to say goodbye Tuesday night to Jeff Francoeur, who was traded to the Rangers and an almost certain playoff berth. Nor did Wright enjoy seeing Rod Barajas, another close teammate, shipped to the Dodgers earlier last month.

The All-Star third baseman insists that he has no desire to follow his friends out the door - either now or at some point n the future. With the Mets about to miss the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season, and Wright staring at another meaningless September, it would be only natural to want to abandon ship.

But Wright is as close as the Mets have to a captain, and his connection to the franchise is strong enough to make him believe there are better times ahead.

"I really love it here," Wright said. "I want to win - very badly - but I want to win here. I think it would be extra special for me knowing that I came up through the system. When I started out, we had some bad years, and all of a sudden, we kind of built it up to 2006.

"We've taken some steps back. But I want to be a part of the solution that gets us back to where we want to get. I think that would be more special. None of us know what's going to happen. Nobody can say what the future holds. We've experienced the tough part, the struggling, and I'd like to experience the other part, because we're in the right market for that."

Wright has two years left on his six-year, $55-million contract, which includes a $16-million team option for 2013. In all likelihood, Wright will finish that deal in a Mets uniform - he's too valuable to the franchise not to - but he also knows the organization is headed for a major upheaval this winter.

With that comes hope. The challenge now is to finish the season in a respectable fashion, and Wright bristled when it was suggested that some people in the clubhouse could be lacking in motivation.

"I would hope not," Wright said. "You take a lot of pride and personal satisfaction in going out there and winning and doing well. I would hope that's the attitude in here. Because if guys don't want to be here, and guys would rather be home right now, then we can find those guys and let him do that. No matter what the standings say, no matter what's going on with us the last 30 games, you want guys that will do everything they can do to win."

The Mets fell short again last night in a 4-1 loss to the Braves. Mike Pelfrey had pitched at least seven innings in his previous four starts, but he was pulled after five as Atlanta throttled him for nine hits and four runs.

The Braves opened the game with three straight hits, the last a two-run double by Martin Prado. They increased their lead to 4-0 in the second inning on Omar Infante's run-scoring single and an RBI double by Jason Heyward, who went 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles.

After trading Francoeur, the Mets had Lucas Duda make his major-league debut in leftfield and started Chris Carter in right - a risky alignment given Carter's suspect defensive ability. That's not what killed the Mets, however. In addition to Pelfrey's awful night, they did nothing against Braves starter Tommy Hanson, who allowed only one hit over seven innings.

Wright broke up the early no-hit bid with a one-out double in the fourth inning, snapping an 0-for-29 skid at Turner Field this season. The Mets failed to get him in, but Luis Hernandez accounted for the lone run with his two-out RBI single in the eighth.