Cardinals Dismantle Mets - NYTimes.com Jeff Roberson/Associated Press Carlos Beltran, formerly of the Mets, hit a three-run homer against them Tuesday in the fifth. LOUIS - A desolate feeling seemed to envelop the Mets on Tuesday night. The team's fifth straight loss, a 10-4 dismantling by the St. Louis Cardinals, was only one aspect of their anxiety. Before the game, the Mets were dealing with a pair of injury issues, one involving a top prospect, the other a veteran reliever. And the Mets were pestered by a persistent controversy involving a fringe player. The losses, though, have exacerbated the ancillary problems, placing them under a magnifying glass. "It's everything," Manager Terry Collins said of the swoon. It's all departments. We've got to play better. We've got to coach better. We've got to manage better. The Mets scored more than three runs for the first time since May 5, and still they were largely subdued by John Gast, a 24-year-old left-hander making his major league debut. At the same time, their starter, Dillon Gee, was rocked. He gave up nine hits and six runs, five of them earned, over four innings, his earned run average bloating to 6.13. Collins and Gee said they were perplexed about his struggles this year. "I don't know what to say, really," Gee said. I didn't feel all that bad tonight. The problems started in the first. After Gee gave up a leadoff walk, he induced a potential double-play ball, but Ike Davis's throw to second base glanced off the runner's back, leaving both runners safe. Consecutive hits from Matt Holliday and Allen Craig produced three runs. Pete Kozma, Matt Carpenter and Carlos Beltran each drove in a run off Gee in the third, increasing the Cardinals" lead to 6-0. The piteous play did not end after Gee's departure. Robert Carson walked two batters to batters to start the fifth, and one out later, Beltran crushed a home run deep into the left-field seats, piling on three more runs. The Mets emerged from their stupor momentarily during a four-run sixth when John Buck and Lucas Duda each drove in a run, and Marlon Byrd, who had doubled in the fifth, belted a two-run homer to left. But Jon Jay homered off Carson the bottom of the inning to make the score 10-4. As losses like these have piled up, those seeking a silver lining could always remind themselves that Zack Wheeler, the top pitching prospect, would be joining the team later this season. It was disconcerting, then, to hear that Wheeler would visit team doctors in New York on Wednesday after reporting soreness around his right clavicle. "I think we're being a little bit conservative, given who it is," said John Ricco, the assistant general manager. Wheeler, a 22-year-old right-hander, will miss his next start for Class AAA Las Vegas. The Mets tried to minimize the issue, depicting themselves as a team using extra care handling a prized asset. Still, they were awaiting the diagnosis. "I hate to speculate, but I've never heard of anything horrible around that area," the pitching coach Dan Warthen said. More consequential in the short term was news that reliever Scott Atchison was placed on the 15-day disabled list a day after feeling numbness in his pitching hand. Ricco said Atchison's right elbow contained bone spurs that caused inflammation. Atchison, 37, has been pitching with a torn ligament in his elbow since at least last season. Collin McHugh was recalled from Las Vegas to work as a long reliever. On top of all these other frustrations, Collins was clearly annoyed, too, when asked about Jordany Valdespin on Tuesday afternoon, three days after Valdespin was plunked during a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The game before that, Valdespin was perceived to have disrespected the Pirates while admiring a late, irrelevant home run. Collins brushed aside the perception that the Mets did not do enough to defend Valdespin, and the manager, as he has in the past, portrayed Valdespin as a talented player who still needed time to mature. For Collins, the persistence of such story lines is rooted in the team's losses. "One of the things that's caused this is we're not playing very good," he said, "so everybody is looking for something to write about." Their performance Tuesday night did not do much to change that.