Wednesday night when an 11-4 loss to the Braves put the Mets' winning percentage right at mediocrity, the word he used often was "embarrassed." "Extremely embarrassed," Wright said.
Wright spoke as if Tuesday and Wednesday were seamlessly connected, that three losses in three games in Atlanta were like the first three quarters of a game. And he recognized Johan Santana was starting the fourth quarter. But his mood remained unchanged by that awareness. Three games had produced three losses. Those games can't be retrieved, those losses can't be fixed like written parking tickets.
"I can accept losing," Wright said. "Not easily, but every team loses here and there. But to go out and give the effort we're giving, to go out and lose without a fight ..."
His voice trailed off in much the same way his team has.
"I just don't think we have the fire I would hope we'd have," Wright said.
Standing at his locker, most of his teammates already departed, Wright pointed toward manager Willie Randoph's office, then to the room where the coaches dress.
"The problem," he said, "isn't there or in there. ... The problem is with us, in here."
Without any other pointing, he wondered aloud about the general confidence of a team that now has 22 victories, 22 losses and more problems than solutions. The Mets had been beaten by a team with less talent and, now, with more injured key personnel.
"Losing like this, I hope, would ruin their nights," Wright said of his departed teammates.
He didn't appear to think that it had.
"I want them to take it personally when we lose," he said. "I want them to be ticked off.
"If it was a matter of talent, it'd be different. If we just weren't any good, I could put my head on the pillow at night and sleep. But to got through the motions every night ..."
Wright interrupted himself again.
"Talking about it doesn't get it done," he said.
But neither had playing.
"It's hard to lose a doubleheader," Wright said. "It's actually hard. Ninety percent are splits. And after losing two and getting embarrassed, you'd expect to come out and fight today.
"And we didn't."