Klapisch: How did Mets become such a train wreck?

NEW YORK – It was in the seventh inning on Saturday when Terry Collins sent out an SOS to Yoenis Cespedes in the trainer’s room. The slugger had spent all afternoon looking for a chance to rescue the Mets, hoping to coax his strained left hamstring into just one at-bat. That’s all Collins was asking for. One trip to the plate. One swing. Anything to keep the Mets from plunging any further into an April abyss.

Cespedes’ answer was as immediate as it was damning: no go.

“He just couldn’t do it,” Collins said, which for the second game in a row left the Mets without their best hitter and, ultimately, any shot of beating the Nationals. The 3-1 loss wasn’t nearly as close as the score suggested, as Collins himself said, “it (felt) like we got blown out.”

That leaves the Mets in the unenviable position of solving Max Scherzer on Sunday night or else suffer the embarrassment of getting swept at home. They’ve already dropped seven of eight games, are two games under .500 and otherwise reek of dysfunction.

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No wonder Collins says the series finale against Washington is “huge.” Everything about the Mets speaks to their under-performance and disappointment. A handful of issues will resolve themselves – Cespedes will heal eventually – although others appear to be chronic.

There’s no leadoff hitter to speak of. Jose Reyes, under .100 again, is an automatic out, and Juan Lagares wasn’t much help either on Saturday. Collins talked about “thinking outside the box” against Scherzer and is leaning toward Michael Conforto at the top of the lineup.

Right-handed power is a problem, too, as Cespedes, Wilmer Flores and Travis d’Arnaud were all unavailable. That meant the Mets were especially vulnerable against Gio Gonzalez, who allowed only two hits in 6⅓ innings and was never in trouble. Not even the Mets’ starting pitching, their sole strength these days, could act as the difference-maker.

Jacob deGrom struck out 10 and generated a career-high 27 swings, but as unhittable as he was in the early innings – seven of the first nine Nationals were retired by strikeout – deGrom was curiously wild. He walked six and was unable to dominate Washington the second time through the lineup.

Matt Wieters’ RBI single in the fourth, along with Trea Turner’s RBI double and Ryan Zimmerman’s run-scoring single in the fifth gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead that doomed the Mets. They spent the last four innings looking nothing like the team that’s imagined itself as one the National League’s elites. To the contrary: the Mets appear lifeless, almost in disbelief at a) how quickly they’ve succumbed to injuries for the second year in a row and b) to the degree the Nationals have established their dominance once again.

Jay Bruce insisted, “there’s no panic in us” but there was no masking the concern in Collins’ voice or on his face. The manager chose not to hold a team meeting after the game; that would’ve only cemented the organization’s unease. But something has to give. Scherzer, after all, is waiting, and there’s a return series against the Nationals next weekend in Washington.

In an unsolicited remark, Collins defended his hitting instructors, who he said, “are leaving no stone unturned” as the Mets look for clues to solving the slump. Collins may have spoken out of simple loyalty toward his bewildered staff, or he may be preemptively providing cover in the event ownership starts looking for someone to blame.

No doubt, the Mets’ slow start has been a shock to the franchise, if not an embarrassment, given their free-flowing confidence in spring training. But here they are, less than a month later, and not only are they in danger of getting swept by the Nationals, they’ve played only .500 ball against the rest of the division.

One of the problems, of course, is the lineup’s heavy reliance on home runs to cover up the other flaws. Without the long ball, however, the Mets are hard-pressed to play small ball – certainly without Reyes’ contribution. That’s why Collins sent word to the trainer’s room in the seventh, when time was running out and the Mets, who’d scored a run off Gonzalez in the sixth, needed one big swing to change the narrative.

That’s what Collins was imagining, with the bottom third of the lineup due up: one baserunner and Cespedes limps to the plate – think: Kirk Gibson, 1988 World Series – to break the Nats’ hearts.

But nothing close to that fantasy materialized. Not only did the Mets go down in order in the seventh, Cespedes couldn’t get off the trainer’s table for the second game in a row. He did not speak to the media after the game; a club spokesman said, “there’s nothing for (Cespedes) to say, nothing has changed.”

Coincidentally or not, the Mets’ two Spanish translators were missing from the clubhouse, which prevented the majority of the beat reporters from throwing even one question Cespedes’ way.

So what’s next? The Mets won’t diminish the importance of beating Scherzer; they need one win this weekend to keep their equilibrium. But Reyes, who was out of the starting lineup on Saturday, is getting closer to judgment day from Mets’ ownership.

More and more, the veteran infielder feels like an automatic out. Until Cespedes returns, every liability becomes magnified. And even then, there’s no guarantee the Mets will heal. Who could’ve seen this train wreck coming?