Reeling Mets Hit Bottom in Loss to Phillies After a summer full of degradation and defeat, the Mets on Thursday burrowed to a previously unfathomed nadir. On no other night this year was their humiliation as complete. The Mets collapsed, 16-1, against the Philadelphia Phillies, extending their home losing streak to nine games. The game, a makeup contest for one postponed by rain, was viewed by a crowd of, at most, a couple thousand people, and played in the closest thing to silence attainable at an American professional sporting event. Imbuing one final insult to the night, the loss mathematically eliminated the Mets from playoff contention. As Manager Terry Collins sat seething after the game, he was asked whether his players had quit. "You have to ask them," he said. I have my own opinion, and I'm not going to express it publicly. The proceedings could have been interpreted as darkly humorous or deeply depressing. Regardless, the game was a farce from the moment it began. Jeremy Hefner opened the game allowing six straight singles and then a walk before Collins emerged from the dugout to save him further embarrassment. Hefner became the first Mets starter to be removed from a game without recording an out since John Maine in 2010. "Words can't even describe how embarrassing that is," Hefner said. Collin McHugh was handed the ball, and he hit the first batter he faced, forcing home the fifth run of the inning. The inning's final out was recorded 33 minutes after the first pitch, but not before three more runs were scored. In all, the Mets allowed nine first-inning hits, setting a new franchise high. Raucous cheers accompanied the Mets as they jogged to their dugout. All applause thereafter was laced with mockery. This would have been the perfect moment for the Mets to break their run of 15 consecutive home games scoring three runs or less. They did not. The Mets had just three hits - all against Tyler Cloyd, who lasted eight innings - and Mike Baxter provided the team's only run with a solo homer in the fifth. No disrespect to Tyler Cloyd - none whatsoever - but three hits? Collins said. Please. We're better than that. The game concluded as ignobly as it began. After the Phillies added one run in the eighth inning, Ryan Howard blasted an opposite-field grand slam off Josh Edgin - one of 10 pitchers the Mets used - to cap a seven-run ninth and bring the Phillies" hit total to 21. "Terry's upset, we're upset, and rightfully so," David Wright said. We've been awful. Through this, the depth of quiet at Citi Field was difficult to overstate. The monotone of the public address announcer and the drone of jet engines lent an eerie quality to the spectacle, as the sounds rattled against empty seats and hard surfaces. Individual voices from the stands rang out, jarringly clear. The Mets this year have been observing the club's 50th anniversary, and this hushed atmosphere was certainly conducive to contemplation. On the same date in 1962, the inaugural Mets team lost both games of a doubleheader against the Houston Colt .45s, drawing a total of 1,481 people to the Polo Grounds. Late Thursday, during the ninth inning, the game's attendance was officially announced: 20,010, the team said, the final joke of the night. The Mets shifted R. A. Dickey's next start from Sunday to Saturday, meaning he will also start the team's final home game next Thursday. Dickey, a leading Cy Young candidate, is 18-6 this year.