NEW YORK -- This game wasn't about Aaron Heilman. At least, it wasn't supposed to be. The script said that this one should have been about Claudio Vargas, plucked out of pitching purgatory to patch the rotation and save the day. And he did. By pitching perhaps better than anyone expected, Vargas earned his fair share of attention.

Yet by the end of the night, Heilman had earned more. That wasn't his intention.

"What can I say?" Heilman said. "I've been kind of up and down all year."

On this Wednesday evening, he was down. Way down. Heilman allowed three runs over one-third of an inning, all of which directly led to a 5-3 loss to the Nationals.

"You're out there to make pitches and get outs," Heilman said. "It's not fun when you're not able to do that."

Heilman, in his opinion, completed half of that assignment. He made pitches -- he really did -- save for one ball to Cristian Guzman that he left hanging in the zone.

When he entered the inning with a tie game in the balance, there was one man on base, the last remains of Vargas' otherwise stellar outing. A decent pitch prompted Wily Mo Pena to dribble a soft grounder to third, resulting in an out but advancing the runner, Elijah Dukes, to second base. Then another decent pitch, this one to Jesus Flores, elicited another ground ball. This one found a hole, plating the go-ahead run.

A walk and another ground-ball single helped plate a second run, and then -- and only then -- did a Nationals batter truly hit Heilman hard. Guzman's single knocked in two additional runs, which proved significant when the Mets scored in later innings.

"He gave up three ground balls and he's a ground-ball pitcher," catcher Brian Schneider said.

The statement was designed to explain itself.

Manager Willie Randolph, jangling the keys to the Mets' bullpen in the dugout, watched the scene unfold and elected to keep Heilman in the game. He had his reasons, chief among them being the fact that Heilman wasn't pitching all that badly. But given also the fact that Matt Wise had pitched twice in two days, and that Scott Schoeneweis had spent the morning in the hospital with an inflamed appendix, Randolph had few choices. He wanted to have Heilman pitch two innings, and to save Joe Smith if he could.

He couldn't.

Smith entered the game later that inning, and the Mets lost regardless. And Heilman, forced to work through more struggles, instead left with another bitter taste.

"He was the guy in that spot," Randolph said. "He just didn't make his pitches."

Randolph lowered his voice as his thoughts trailed off.

"In that spot for me, anyway."

For Randolph, but perhaps not for the thousands of Mets fans who booed him off Shea Stadium's mound yet again. Heilman, head down, walked back to the dugout, another bad memory in his pocket. And the fans -- his fans -- remained displeased.

"It doesn't really affect me," Heilman said. "I don't begrudge them for voicing their opinion. You're just trying to go out there and compete and help the team win."

All of it was enough to spoil the Mets debut of Vargas, who -- until the seventh inning, at least -- made it a memorable one. Vargas didn't allow a run until Ryan Zimmerman homered off him with two outs in the sixth, instead striking out six Nationals and using two double plays to conserve his pitches.

He had thrown 97 of them by the time Randolph came to the mound in the seventh, and though Vargas said he wanted to pitch longer, Randolph quickly nixed the idea.

His day was done, and the gears that ultimately led to the Mets' seventh loss in 13 games were set in motion.

"I felt good and I pitched good, and I gave the team a chance to win the ballgame," Vargas said.

But that wasn't enough. This Mets team was constructed to win games when its starting pitchers feel good and pitch good, but on this day -- and on so many days lately -- it didn't matter. The Mets could do little off Nationals starter Tim Redding, mustering one run on Schneider's homer, but otherwise walking quietly back to the bench.

Only Moises Alou, ejected in the fifth inning after being called out on strikes, made some noise. Yet that didn't boost the Mets to a win. Instead, they simply trudged on with their routine of the past two weeks: one step forward, another one back. Rinse, repeat.

Heilman, naturally, did the same.

"I really feel like he was coming a little bit," Randolph said. "This is hopefully not going to set him back."