When Jorge Lopez angrily fired his glove into the stands near the Mets dugout as he walked off the mound in the eighth inning of a 10-3 loss to the Dodgers, it was fair to wonder if a fan might lose an eye in the process.
It was that kind of day, in what’s been that kind of year, at Citi Field.
Not long after the team announced Edwin Diaz was on the IL with a right shoulder impingement, Pete Alonso was removed from Wednesday’s game against the Dodgers in the bottom of the first after being hit in the right hand as he tried to check his swing on a 93 mph fastball from James Paxton.
And then they got swept away by the Dodgers in Queens, with the once-formidable Adam Ottavino — as well as Lopez — getting knocked around in the decisive eighth inning.
Before the fateful inning was over, Lopez was tossed for arguing a check swing by Freddie Freeman and threw his glove into the stands as he headed to the dugout.
The Mets have now dropped eight of their last nine games, 10 of 12 and 13 of 16.
And they’re a season-worst 11 games under .500.
To sum it up: It’s not good.
The Mets managed to come back from a 3-0 deficit with a three-run fifth, but Ottavino, whose terrific start to the season is now a distant memory, gave up a go-ahead homer to Will Smith on the first pitch of the eighth inning.
It was Smith’s second homer — and third extra-base hit of the day — and also marked the third time in four appearances that Ottavino was scored upon.
Ottavino followed by allowing a booming triple to Jason Heyward, a walk and then an RBI single to Miguel Rojas before being booed off the mound in a six-run inning that somehow only got worse when Lopez entered, as the two combined to give up six runs while recording just one out apiece.
It’s been a dramatic fall for Ottavino, who was nearly unhittable for much of April, but has struggled since.
But the veteran right-hander is just a small part of a growing list of issues for a team that seems more likely to challenge the Marlins for last place in the NL East than for a wild-card spot.
David Peterson, in his first start since returning from offseason hip surgery, gave up three runs, two earned in five innings.
The left-hander gave up a leadoff homer to Smith in the top of the second.
The Mets threatened in the third with consecutive two-out singles by Francisco Lindor and Brett Baty, but J.D. Martinez popped out to end the inning.
Los Angeles added a run in the fourth, as Smith led off this time with a double and scored on a base hit by Teoscar Hernandez. They made it 3-0 in the fifth with an unearned run, aided by an error by Peterson.
But with Paxton out of the game after just three innings, the Mets came back in the bottom of the fifth off Elieser Hernandez thanks to a two-run homer by Tomas Nido, his third of the year.
Lindor walked and then scored on a one-out double by Martinez to tie the game at 3-3.
It stayed that way thanks to some bad baserunning by the Dodgers and heads-up defense by the Mets in the sixth.
With Teoscar Hernandez at second and two out, Rojas singled to left.
After initially stopping at third, Hernandez wandered toward home when Rojas got in a rundown between first and second.
A strong throw by Jeff McNeil to Lindor covering third got Hernandez for the third out.
It didn’t matter, as the Mets couldn’t score against the Dodgers’ bullpen and then Ottavino and Lopez imploded in the eighth.
A two-run flare single by Miguel Vargas off Lopez put the game away. And then Shohei Ohtani added a finishing touch with an opposite-field two-run shot to left.
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