By BART HUBBUCH
May 31, 2008
The showers in the Met clubhouse weren't working last night, so there was no way to wash off the odor of Aaron Heilman's latest stinker.
The Mets were poised to keep the good times rolling until Heilman once again made himself Shea Stadium's resident Public Enemy No. 1 in a 9-5 loss to the Dodgers that snapped the home team's three-game win streak.
Heilman had quieted the boos this week by striking out seven and not allowing a run in his previous two appearances, a display that earned the embattled reliever another shot at the set-up role from Willie Randolph.
But the new and seemingly improved Heilman was nowhere to be found in the eighth inning last night. He allowed four runs on four hits without recording an out as the Dodgers turned a 5-4 deficit into the final margin and dropped the Mets back below .500 at 26-27.
"To let it slip away like that is frustrating," said Heilman, who has let an astonishing seven of his nine inherited runners to score this season. "You want to keep the game where it is and give the offense a chance to score more runs, but I wasn't able to do that."
Incredibly, Randolph said he thought Heilman pitched "pretty good," noting the final two hits off Heilman were grounders that found holes in the Mets infield.
"It was just a couple of hard-hit balls that got gapped and a couple that just flared over," said Randolph, who was booed ferociously himself for keeping Duaner Sanchez in the bullpen and leaving Heilman in for so long. "I don't think this isn't going to set Aaron back. He just had a tough night."
Randolph was in no mood to hang this one entirely on Heilman, because the Mets' anemic offense and what appeared to be a blown call in L.A.'s decisive eighth by first-base umpire Tim Welke also played huge roles.
Welke helped the Dodgers get their rally started by ruling leadoff hitter Juan Pierre safe at first on a grounder to short, even though replays appeared to show Jose Reyes' throw beating Pierre by a half step. The Mets were leading by a run at the time, but the momentum turned with that play.
"He just missed the call," Randolph said of Welke, who defended his ruling afterward. "What are you going to do? It was a bad break right there."
Randolph didn't fume over the call because his team's bats were just as disappointing. The Mets loaded the bases three times against 20-year-old starter Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers bullpen but managed just five runs.
No timely hitting - a season-long ailment for the Mets that had disappeared during this week's win streak - returned with a vengeance last night. They were just 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position while stranding 11.
"We just couldn't get a big hit tonight," Randolph said. "The kid [Kershaw] was struggling, and we just let him off the hook too many times."
Mets starter John Maine also shared in the blame. The right-hander finished strong, allowing just two hits and one run in his final five innings, but that couldn't overshadow the three runs he gave up in the first.
"It's obviously one that we let get away," David Wright said. "To be the kind of team we want to be, these are the ones we've got to have."
bhubbuch@nypost.com
