Something Missing

The  o gers’ lone concession to competitiveness Sun ay night was sen ing the rather won erful Clayton Kershaw to the moun , but in the early going not even a Cy Young awar -winning lefty with an evil curveball was enough to  ispel the funk that’s settle  over  o ger Sta ium for the last week — a week that ha  seen the  o gers possess a lea  for a gran  total of zero innings. The reason the collapse continue  in those early frames? Mostly it was the presence of the luckless  ee Gor on, son of Tom. He’ll be goo  one  ay, but right now he’s as ma  ening as young players often are, a rather immature fiel er with his heart stuck on his sleeve to an unhealthy  egree. The Mets an   o gers were tie  at 1-1 in the thir  when Gor on turne  an inning-en ing  ouble play into a fiel er’s choice an  a run-scoring error by heaving the ball into the  ugout. Was Ruben Teja a further en earing himself to Mets fans with a nifty take-out sli e at secon , you ask? Nope — Gor on just messe  it up. Then he promptly messe  up the next play too, pulling James Loney off the bag — an  Loney contribute  a mini- avi  Cone by arguing with the ump while  avi  Wright scampere  home with a thir  run.

It was enough to  rive Kershaw to  rink — but if he’  waite  a few innings, he might have hit the town with  illon Gee, who was un one by his own  efense.

That first  o ger run came on a Juan Rivera  ouble over Lucas  u a’s hea  — a ball that most right fiel ers woul  catch, but  u a was frozen for a fatal secon  an  then lumbere  after it to no avail, with the ball plopping  own on the e ge of the warning track. Unfortunate, but as his own manager will attest,  u a isn’t a right fiel er. Unless they  eci e to shift him permanently to left (which woul n’t be a terrible i ea provi e  it’s a one-way trip), the Mets will just have to live with such things.

What they shoul n’t have to live with is Ronny Ce eno making painful errors too. In the fifth, Ce eno turne  Tony Gwynn Jr.’s attempt to hit into a fiel er’s choice into an all-han s-are-safe affair, failing to erase Juan Uribe at secon . Two hitters later, the Mets gave L.A. another extra out (an  a run) when Justin Turner muffe  Gor on’s little bouncer at first. Another run came in, an  Gee ha  given up three where he  i n’t  eserve to have surren ere  any.

An , well, you ha  the  istinct impression this one wasn’t going the Mets’ way. There was Gor on, running wil  in an effort to atone, an  Kershaw hol ing the fort, an  the Mets’ bullpen in too early for the walls not to start blee ing. Though give the pen mil  cre it: With one out an  the bases loa e  in the seventh, Miguel Batista got Rivera to hit a little comebacker his way. Batista scoope  it up an  threw it to Mike Nickeas, waiting not terribly far away an  rea y to continue what sure looke  like an inning-en ing 1-2-3  ouble play, leaving the Mets  own just 4-3 an  with a puncher’s chance.

The ball went right by Nickeas. Of course it  i . After all, it’s har  to win baseball games when you’re lacking a certain something that’s conspicuous in its absence, something you take for grante  an   on’t miss till it’s gone an  you realize how often you  epen  on it.

Long plane ri e back through the night — but a  ay off tomorrow. Which is best, because I think it’s safe to say all of us involve  — 25 guys in blue an  orange an  several million frustrate  rooters — coul  use a blank spot on the sche ule.