NEW YORK

-- It's difficult to explain how the process of events played out for the

in their eighth inning against the Cubs in

. With Daniel Murphy on second and Ruben Tejada on third,

.

The Mets hadn't scored in nearly 17 innings at that point and were in dire need of a run to break a 0-0 tie against the Cubs. It went downhill from there.

"We're going to do something we haven't done all year and have him try to squeeze," Collins explained. "We didn't have anything to lose except try to score a run. So that's why we did it. We just didn't execute it."

Ceciliani could not get the bunt down, Tejada was caught in a run down between third and home. Murphy ended up on third.

Mets botch a suicide squeeze play, two Mets players end up on 3rd base. Both Mets players are called out #LOLMets pic.twitter.com/hzTbZeuQHy — Keon Broxton Superfan (@MetsKevin11) July 2, 2015

"I thought I would be at third base and Ruben would be out," Murphy explained.

But it was nearly worse. Tejada ran back to third as Murphy stood there. Murphy was tagged by Cubs catcher Miguel Montero and then so was Tejada after he ran past the bag. A loose interpretation of the rules left some ambiguity as to whether a double play could have been in order. But only Tejada was ruled out.

Tejada, once he passed the bag, he abandoned his efforts to be safe," crew chief Laz Diaz said. "Once that happened, it was Murphy's bag. So when Murphy got tagged, he thought that Tejada was still on the bag, which he wasn't, he was two steps past it. So once he abandoned his efforts, Tejada's out and that's Murphy's bag.

"He wasn't going home, he was on the other side of third base going toward the outfield. That's why he abandoned his effort, because he was on the other side of third base."

The explanation was of little consolation for the Mets. It ruined their best opportunity to score all night. They would not and they were shutout at Citi Field for the seventh time all season.

"

We're not getting a lot of opportunity so that's why you sit there and say let's open it up, we're just not doing it," Collins said. "So you figure we gotta do something that's outside the box because we've been staying inside the box and it isn't working. We gave it a shot. It didn't work. We will continue to press forward and try to come up with some answers."

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Mike Vorkunov may be reached at mvorkunov@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Mike_Vorkunov. Find NJ.com Mets on Facebook.