Izzy, Turner sabotage Mets in ninth

When the epitaph for this Mets season is written, and that time is coming soon, it will probably sound a lot like what Terry Collins had to say after Tuesday night's 4-3 loss to the Marlins.

"He knew exactly what he wanted to do," Collins said. "He just didn't get it done."

In this specific instance, the manager was talking about second baseman Justin Turner, whose failure to turn a double play -- albeit a difficult one -- and his subsequent throwing error doomed the Mets in the ninth inning.

But Collins could have been describing anyone. Jason Isringhausen, for loading the bases in the ninth, then blowing the save and ultimately the game. Chris Capuano, for allowing Omar Infante to go deep twice and double his home-run production for the season in one night.

Or Daniel Murphy from Monday night's loss, or Bobby Parnell from Sunday's crushing defeat to the Nationals -- the list goes on and on. The bottom line is that the Mets dropped their fourth straight, and in doing so, again failed to capitalize on another loss by the Braves, who are in the midst of their own three-game skid.

"They hurt bad," Collins said. "We've let some games slip away and you can't do that in a pennant race. You can't do that when you're fighting for something. You've got to win games where you've got the lead and your people in place to win those games. We haven't done that."

Turner looked as if he was in the right place at the right time in the ninth inning. With the bases loaded, and one out, Marlins pinch hitter Bryan Petersen slapped a ground ball directly to Turner, who was playing at halfway depth.

Before the ball was hit, Turner was thinking of either throwing to the plate to cut down the lead runner, or if possible, start a 4-6-3 double play that would end the inning. But Petersen's grounder came at a speed that complicated matters, and Turner figured his only chance was to try and tag John Buck before flipping to first for the double play.

Buck put on the brakes rather than run into the tag -- a smart play -- and Turner, now rushing, fired a throw that sailed past first baseman Lucas Duda for an error. Two runs scored.

"My first instinct was to try and tag Buck to get a double play that way," Turner said. "But once I fielded the ball, and looked up, and saw where Buck was, it unraveled from there. I kind of got into panic mode there."

Collins spoke with Turner after the game, and was confident that he understood what to do in that situation. Second base is Turner's best position, and it's not as if that play was new for him.

"He was aware of everything -- we just didn't execute it," Collins said. "I don't know what else to say except that's the way things have been going for us in the last four days, for sure."

The Mets already had been backed into a corner by Isringhausen, who loaded the bases in the ninth with a leadoff walk to Logan Morrison, a one-out single to Mike Cameron and then nailing Buck. Not exactly what you want from your closer, especially coming off Monday night, when Isinghausen served up the winning grand slam to Mike Stanton.

Those back-to-back shaky performances were enough to convince Collins to give Isringhausen Wednesday night off -- and the manager will be watching him more closely in the future.

"I don't blame anyone but myself," Isringhausen said. "I'm not happy with the results, but I'm not hurting. Everything will be fine."

That may be an overly optimistic viewpoint at this stage, with the Mets falling back to .500 (55-55) and into a tie with the Marlins, not to mention staying 7 1/2 games back in the wild-card race.