Angels spot Mets too much too soon

Willie Randolph is still managing the New York Mets and Rick Peterson is still his pitching coach. Though after what their team put them through Monday, it’s a wonder why they would want their jobs.

Holding a six-run lead against one of the most futile offenses in baseball, the Mets twice came within a pitch of turning an easy victory into a crushing loss before eventually emerging with a 9-6 win over an Angels team that, for 6 1/2 innings, seemingly did everything to give the game away.

Not only did starter Jered Weaver (6-7) give up six runs for the third time in his last eight starts, but the Angels had three runners thrown out on the bases -- including two at third base on consecutive pitches in the fourth inning -- and first baseman Casey Kotchman committed his first error of the season, giving the Mets a run in the seventh.

About the only thing the Angels didn’t do was quit. And they almost stole a victory because of that.

Three times the Mets had leads of three runs or more and three times the Angels managed to bring the tying or winning run to the plate, the final time in the ninth when Garret Anderson lined into a game-ending double play with runners on first and second.

But although the Angels fell short on the scoreboard, their rallies were significant in other ways. The three runs they scored in the seventh, for example, were the most they had scored in an inning in a week -- and it was more than they’d scored in two of their last three games.

And the six runs they scored Monday marked only the second time they’ve scored that many in their last 25 games. Amazingly, they won 16 of those games thanks to splendid pitching.

“We lost the game, that’s the bottom line,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “There are some positives you can point to on the offensive side. I think offensively we had a good night.

“We kept playing baseball, but we just dug ourselves a little bit too much of a hole.”

The Mets started digging that hole early, jumping on Weaver for four runs in the first 2 2/3 innings, with two of the runs coming on homers by Carlos Beltran.

New York’s first run came without benefit of a hit, though, with Jose Reyes leading off the game with a walk then coming around to score on a stolen base and catcher Jeff Mathis’ throwing error.

“We just didn’t get the ball in the zones we needed tonight, and those guys scored a lot of runs,” Scioscia said.

The Angels answered quickly with a run on Anderson’s first-inning sacrifice fly, then scored twice in the fourth on run-scoring singles by Torii Hunter and Howie Kendrick. But both rallies were shortened by baserunning gaffes -- in the first when Maicer Izturis was cut down at second base after Anderson’s fly and in the fourth when Vladimir Guerrero and then Kotchman were caught off third, Guerrero trying to return and Kotchman trying to advance.

The Mets then appeared to put the game away with a four-run seventh that included a two-run single by Luis Castillo, a run-scoring double by David Wright and Kotchman’s error.

But the Angels came back again in their half of the inning, putting the first four runners on and getting run-scoring hits from Mathis, Chone Figgins and Anderson, bringing their top two RBI men to the plate with the tying runs on base. But Aaron Heilman came out of the bullpen to strike out Guerrero and Hunter to end the threat.

The final comeback try, in the ninth inning, was also short-lived, with closer Billy Wagner getting Anderson on a shot to shortstop that turned into a double play.

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com