Consider this: Even if the Mets had fulfilled Schoeneweis’s wish and doubled it, they still would have lost. After winning eight of nine to seemingly halt their three-week funk, the Mets have lapsed into another sluggish stretch, with nothing more disconcerting than their 17-7 loss at Coors Field. It was their fourth defeat in a row, and they left the Mile High City dazed, confused and suffering from a terrible strain of altitude sickness.

Aided by a six-run fifth, the Rockies scored 12 runs in the middle three innings to sweep three games from the Mets for the first time since July 1996. In a funereal clubhouse, Randolph and his players tried one-upping one another in describing their reactions.

“The only way to say it is that we got our butts kicked in all three games,” Shawn Green said.

“No excuses,” Randolph said.

“It’s the worst feeling in baseball,” said a stunned Lo Duca, who was behind the plate for each and every one of the 233 pitches thrown by Mets pitchers.

Only a few days ago, the Mets had marched into Philadelphia and demolished the Phillies in the first three games of their hyped series. So how did this — being outscored, 34-12 — happen? For one thing, the starting pitchers allowed a total of 20 earned runs and 12 walks in 13 1/3 innings for a 13.50 earned run average. The Rockies had 47 hits and 7 home runs as the middle of their order — Matt Holliday, Todd Helton and Garrett Atkins — tortured them all series long.

Just Wednesday night, that threesome went 7 for 10 with six walks while scoring six times and driving in 11.

"We weren’t in any games at all,” Lo Duca said. “To go up 3-0 and lose 17-7? Wow.”

Stop if you have heard this before: A starting pitcher wasted little time in frittering away a first-inning lead, the lineup generated — relatively speaking — hardly a peep after that, and the first reliever brought in destroyed all hope of a comeback by allowing a home run or two. Guillermo Mota allowed the same number of runs (six) and hits (six) in two-thirds of an inning as the man he succeeded, Orlando Hernández, did in four.

“No excuses,” Randolph said. “Nothing more than we just didn’t get the job done.”

In their 11-3 loss Tuesday, the final 13 Mets went down in order, giving the impression that they wanted to cut their losses and try again Wednesday. Green, for one, said that thought never entered his mind.

“Obviously it’s a big hole to get out of, but you’re always just a big inning away here from getting back into it,” Green said.

The Mets never put together that big inning Wednesday, perhaps a little sleepy from all that time spent in the field waiting for Hernández to record that elusive third out.

Hernández, who had allowed only two runs in his previous 13 innings, labored through an uncharacteristically erratic game, tying a career high with six walks. His final one, to Helton, came with the bases loaded in the fourth to complete the Rockies’ comeback from a 3-0 deficit in the first.

Hernández threw 107 pitches through four innings and was replaced by Mota, who, after allowing a homer and single to begin the fifth, recorded two outs before giving up two singles, a double and a two-run homer by Atkins. Through an interpreter, Hernández said he had awful command of his fastball and did not blame the dry air for hindering his ability to throw effective breaking pitches.

“They weren’t swinging at any bad pitches,” Lo Duca said of the Rockies during this series. “Almost 100 percent of the time, when a mistake was made, they made us pay for it.”

Last week, Randolph revealed that when the Mets were swept in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, he was so exasperated with the team’s play that he threw a chair and broke the door to the manager’s office. Asked if he felt mad enough to do so again Randolph replied, “I seem pretty calm, don’t I? I guess that means that I’m O.K.”

Randolph had as little patience with that question as he did with Jason Vargas, whose miserable performance Tuesday led to his being optioned to Class AAA New Orleans. In his place, the Mets recalled catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. The Mets need a starter for Sunday’s game in Houston, and indications are that it will be Dave Williams.

The hearing for Lo Duca’s two-game suspension is scheduled for Friday, and in an ideal situation, the Mets will keep Alomar to add catching depth as they await the ruling, then replace him with Sunday’s starter.

“Guess I’ll be here for a few days,” said Alomar, who was batting .323 in 38 games for New Orleans. “That’s all, I imagine.”

John Ricco, the Mets’ assistant general manager, said he did not know how long it would take for Major League Baseball to reach a decision on Lo Duca. The Mets would play with 24 players for as long as Lo Duca was out. Randolph would not commit to calling Williams his starter for Sunday, but the Mets will need to make a decision on him relatively soon.

Out of minor league options, Williams must be added to the major league roster or be designated for assignment by July 21, when his 30-day rehabilitation assignment ends. The Mets like Williams and do not want to risk losing him through waivers, so they figure to promote him on their terms, when he can fill a void. If he starts Sunday, he could bump Aaron Sele, who seems to pitch only in games like Wednesday night’s, off the roster and replace him as the team’s long reliever/spot starter.

The Mets were not thinking that far ahead, at least not publicly, although they could not wait to get to Houston. The equipment manager Charlie Samuels gave minute-by-minute updates about when the bus was leaving — 17 minutes, 15 minutes, 14 minutes — and the players did their best to accommodate him.

“We’ll try to pay Houston back for what the Rockies did to us,” Green said.