"It was a beautiful early summer afternoon at Citi Field. Wispy white clouds scattered across a Carolina blue sky. It was just enough sun to make you appreciate the breeze and not so much humidity to make you hate the heat.

Because it was Father's Day there were plenty of kids with their dads among the 36,213 fans in attendance. It was a Norman Rockwell depiction of a perfect afternoon of baseball.

The Mets were trying to take two in a row from the Angels in one of the least intriguing interleague matchups.

Unfortunately, the Mets were not up to the task of matching the picture postcard with crisp play. The Angels handed them a 7-3 loss on the strength of 21-year-old Tyler Chatwood (4-4) pitching seven shutout innings.

As sharp as Mike Pelfrey was on Saturday night when he pitched a complete game and gave up just one run, Jonathon Niese was just as ragged Sunday.

Terry Collins, acting like a boxing referee, stepped in to stop the beating in the fifth inning, pulling Niese, whose control of his curveball failed him.

"I really wasn't expecting it," Niese said of Collins giving him the early hook. "Obviously I wanted to keep pitching. But things weren't going my way. It just wasn't my day."

Niese, who entered with the second-lowest ERA in the majors (1.58) since May 18, was charged with five runs (four earned) on eight hits in his four-plus innings.

Given that Niese (6-6) has been brilliant and at the forefront of a pitching staff that has kept the Mets afloat for the last month, Collins chalked it up to a bad day. It was a stinker for the entire team.

"You never want to have them, but you're going to have them," Collins said. "When you don't pitch and especially when you don't pitch and hit at the same time, it's going to get ugly. It got ugly."

There could be more days like this in a couple of months, if the doomsday forecast for the Mets - trading away Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Francisco Rodriguez by July 31 - materializes. It could get very ugly at Citi Field - and lonely."