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Mets' Mike Pelfrey: 'I Was Awful' Against Phillies

NEW YORK (WFAN/AP) -- What's wrong with Mike Pelfrey?

He was supposed to be the fill-in ace of the Mets' rotation. Instead, Pelfrey has contributed two straight bad outings.

"I was bad last week and I was even worse tonight," Pelfrey said after Wednesday night's loss to the Phillies. "I let them down again."

The Phillies jumped on Pelfrey for a pair in the first. Victorino tripled to right-center and scored on Polanco's sharp groundout to second. Howard drove a two-out double to deep left-center and scored when Raul Ibanez lined a single to left.

"I was awful," he said. "I screwed around too much. Too many sliders and too many curveballs."

A miscue by Pelfrey led to another run in the second. Pete Orr reached on an infield single to start the inning. Blanton then popped up a one-out bunt. Pelfrey let it drop, hoping to start a 1-4-6 double play. But his throw to first skipped past second baseman Emaus for an error and the runners ended up at second and third. Orr scored on Victorino's groundout to deep short for a 3-0 lead.

"I was gonna catch it and I think it was David (Wright), 'Let it go, drop drop,' so I let it go, and I picked it up and obviously didn't have a good grip on it," Pelfrey said. "That definitely doesn't help out when you can't even field your position, little things like that."

LISTEN: Mike Pelfrey speaks after "awful" outing

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The Phillies knocked Pelfrey out in the third. Howard led off with a towering shot into the bushes behind the wall in straightaway center. Ibanez singled, Francisco walked and Orr blooped a single to left to load the bases.

That ended his night.

After the game, Pelfrey didn't appear too happy with his pitch selection. Throughout the night he relied on secondary pitches instead of his fastball, but he wouldn't put the blame on young catcher Josh Thole.

"Ultimately, it's on me," Pelfrey said.

"A lot of times, I fell behind with my third- or fourth-best pitches," he added. "I got beat a lot of times with those pitches, instead of getting beat with my fastball and my split. I only threw three splits tonight, and I thought my split was pretty good."

"We couldn't get in the right counts to use the fastball," said Thole. "With this kind of lineup, we just can't keep attacking with a fastball."

Will Pelfrey turn it around? Sound off in the comments below...

(TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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