NEW YORK — The formula for frustration for the New York Mets remains familiar: Get good starting pitching, waste it with an inability to generate any offense.
The Mets repeated the same refrain Thursday night, when they wasted a solid effort by left-hander Jonathon Niese in a 5-1, 13-inning loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at Citi Field.
Niese authored the Mets’ 42nd “quality start” — at least six innings pitched and no more than three earned runs allowed — in giving up just one run over 7 2/3 innings. But the Mets not only fell to 24-18 in quality starts, they also lost for the 13th time this season when a pitcher allows two runs or less. Niese has been on the mound for five of those defeats.
“Niese once again goes out there and pitched a great game — I mean, not even good, just great,” slumping Mets third baseman David Wright said. “For the offense to kind of sputter the way it has — trust me. The effort level’s there. And now it’s just execution.”
Alas, the Mets keep firing blanks. They have scored two runs or less 19 times in 66 games.
Niese, who left with the score tied 1-1, wasn’t going to earn the win Thursday, when the Mets recorded just four hits against Brewers right-hander Kyle Lohse in the first eight innings before stranding seven baserunners between the ninth and 11th innings.
Wright led off the 11th with a walk and the Mets eventually loaded the bases on another pair of free passes. But Wright was forced at home on shortstop Wilmer Flores’ grounder to first and catcher Anthony Recker struck out looking.
“You finally get one of those opportunities late in the game and you want to be that guy who gets that big hit,” Wright said. “We have to do a better job.
“Obviously, the glaring situation was (with) the bases loaded, but even more so, we’ve got to be able to get more runners in scoring position so we have more opportunities to come through where we’re not just putting all our eggs in one basket, waiting for one situation to break open.”