Mets Tinker With Offense, but Are Unable to Fix It Seth Wenig/Associated Press Jimmy Rollins, right, was greeted by Chase Utley and Laynce Nix when he scored on a Ryan Howard double as the Phillies broke through against the Mets' bullpen in the seventh. Before Sunday afternoon's series finale against the Philadelphia Phillies, Terry Collins met with his coaching staff at Citi Field. The Mets had lost three straight games, their offensive slumbering and their relief pitching edging close to the realm of unmitigated disaster. Something needed to change. So Collins decided to tinker with his lineup. This is what managers often do during skids: comb the clubhouse for solutions. Given the state of the Mets" roster, Collins has few options, but he can tinker. On Sunday, that meant moving David Wright back to third in the order after a two-game cameo as the Mets" cleanup hitter. "We talked about why we're not scoring," Collins said. And what were we doing when we were scoring? We had David hitting third. It was not the most scientific approach, and it proved to make absolutely no difference as the Mets mustered just three hits in a 5-1 loss. In completing a three-game sweep, the Phillies (12-14) jumped all over the Mets" bullpen and used a strong start from Cole Hamels to nullify Collins's revamped lineup. The Mets (10-13) slipped to fourth place in the National League East, a position they know well, having finished there in each of the last four seasons. They can only hope that a trip to play the lowly Miami Marlins this week offers an opportunity to repair their fractured confidence. "You can't get down," Collins said. "You can't say, "Now we're in a hole." We're not in a hole. You have a good May, you bounce out of it. We've got five months left. The Mets, who will send Matt Harvey to the mound Monday night against the Marlins, wasted a fine effort Sunday from the left-hander Jon Niese, who showed no lingering effects after taking a ground ball off his right ankle in his last start, against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday. He pitched six and two-third innings and allowed five hits and three runs, though only one was earned. "We're going to forget about this series," Niese said. Trouble surfaced with two outs in the top of the seventh when catcher John Buck gave chase to a foul pop-up off the bat of Philadelphia's Laynce Nix. Maneuvering past the Phillies" on-deck circle, Buck lunged for the ball, which caromed off his mitt. The error preserved Nix's at-bat and extended the inning. "It hit my glove," Buck said. I should've caught it. It proved costly. After Nix and Jimmy Rollins singled, Niese gave way to Scott Atchison. Niese said he had hoped to stay in the game, but his pitch count was mounting and he understood why Collins made the move. "The situation called for it," Niese said. Atchison had been one of the Mets" more reliable relievers, but he fell behind against Ryan Howard. On a 2-0 count, Atchison tried to throw a fastball low and away but left it over the plate. Howard hammered a two-run double for a 3-1 lead, and Chase Utley followed with a run-scoring single. "In this game, at our level, if you give good teams extra outs, they're going to do some damage," Collins said. The loss capped a miserable nine-game homestand for the Mets, during which they lost six games, averaged 3.4 runs a contest and had a .186 batting average. On Sunday, the Mets scored their lone run in the first inning, when Ruben Tejada led off with a double into the left-field gap and Wright hit a run-scoring single. At the time, Collins's decision to shift Wright in the order looked like a stroke of genius. But as the game moved along, the Mets" offense evaporated. Ike Davis, his batting average dipping to .169, went hitless in three at-bats. The Mets left eight runners on base, failing to take advantage of six walks - all issued by Hamels, who was otherwise terrific. He gave up two hits and one run in six innings. The Mets hit several balls sharply, but the Phillies played solid defense. Afterward, Collins expressed confidence that his hitters would begin to produce again. After all, he said, they were patient against Hamels, forcing him to throw 111 pitches to get through six innings. "Everybody's working at stuff," Collins said. The video rooms are packed with guys who want to figure it out and analyze things. But it's just about making sure you're putting a good swing on the ball. These guys are all talented enough to do that. Frank Francisco, the Mets" onetime closer, continues to make some progress in his comeback from off-season elbow surgery. Terry Collins said Francisco threw 25 pitches Saturday as part of his rehabilitation, but cautioned that Francisco was nowhere close to making his return. "He felt O.K., not great," Collins said, adding, "It's just a matter now of having his arm respond to the rigors of throwing a lot." ... Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz made his season debut Sunday after serving a 25-game suspension for testing positive for an amphetamine. Ruiz batted fifth and went 1 for 4.