SAN FRANCISCO — It is impossible, with any certainty, to pinpoint precisely when a season ceases to justify hope. Fancy statistics and mathematics can go only so far. And even if such a feeling took residence in the clubhouse, it would be fiercely guarded from public view.
The only evidence, then, is what can be gleaned on the field. And what the Mets have consistently presented is an overwhelmingly bleak picture, one littered with dark smudges and stains, such as Thursday night’s 10-7 loss to the Giants.
The defeat was distinctive in its awful timing and unyielding torment, a postcard from a promising season gone wrong.
Journeyman Justin Ruggiano hit a fourth-inning grand slam off Madison Bumgarner — one of the most improbable homers of the season — to give the Mets a 4-0 lead. But it was merely a prelude to horror.
The Giants responded with eight consecutive runs, sending Mets ace Jacob deGrom to one of the worst starts of his career and turning a highly anticipated pitchers’ duel into glorified batting practice.
Thanks to the onslaught, deGrom set career highs for hits (13) and runs allowed (eight), and the Mets absorbed another kick in the teeth.
They dipped below the .500 mark (60-61) and slid 4 1⁄2 games back in the chase for the final wild card. They did so by losing to another team in freefall; the Giants’ 10-21 slump since the All-Star break has cost them first place in the NL West.
Ruggiano briefly allowed the Mets to believe that their fortunes might turn. He signed with the Mets on July 30, played three games, bungled a few fly balls and pulled his hamstring. But Ruggiano has had success against Bumgarner, which is why the Mets made sure his rehab assignment ended in time for the series opener against the Giants.
The move ultimately looked shrewd. Ruggiano appeared to strike out looking on a slider that buzzed the bottom of the strike zone, but plate umpire Brian Gorman did not move his hand, sending a wave of groans sweeping over AT&T Park. In the dugout, Giants skipper Bruce Bochy fumed. Replays confirmed: The Mets caught a break.
Two pitches later, they caught another. With the count full, Bumgarner left a slider over the plate, and Ruggiano drove it into the netting that protects the garden behind the centerfield fence.
The Mets led 4-0 behind their first grand slam since April — off the bat of a player who hadn’t homered in the big leagues since Sept. 29. And as an added bonus, the Mets handed the cushion over to deGrom, who had allowed two runs in his previous 30 2⁄3 innings. But the lead wouldn’t last through the inning.
Hunter Pence laced an RBI single, Eduardo Nuñez tripled home two more, and Bumgarner added the twist of the knife. One of the best-hitting pitchers in baseball, he hit his third homer of the year for a 5-4 lead.
The Giants tacked on three runs in the fifth behind an RBI single by Nuñez and a two-run double by Joe Panik. Ty Kelly laced a two-run triple in the sixth and scored on Rene Rivera’s groundout to make it 8-7, but it proved to be a tease. Buster Posey’s two-run double off the rightfield wall in the eighth extinguished hopes of a comeback.
..... - Newsday