NEW YORK -- The Mets are doing plenty of rotation maneuvering, but they aren't maneuvering Tommy Milone out of it yet.

Zack Wheeler asked for an extra day in between starts and Jacob deGrom may need one for his blister, so like it or not, Milone is here to stay.

His third start for the Mets was his worst of the season and one of the worst of his career Sunday against the Los Angeles Angels. The soft-tossing lefty is can typically locate effectively. It's been his calling card since he arrived in the major leagues and it's a reason the Mets put in a waiver claim on him two weeks ago.

Milone located his pitches on Sunday -- he located them right out over the plate and left them high. He tied his career worst with eight runs (seven earned) and lasted just 1 1/3 innings.

"I felt like I made a couple good pitches, but they just put they just put the ball in play and got hits," Milone said. "The other ones, trying to make pitches and leaving them out over the plate. It seemed like they were all on everything."

He has yet to record a scoreless outing this season as a starter or a reliever and he hasn't pitched six full innings yet this season. But the Mets have already skipped Robert Gsellman once and will need a fifth starter again next week.

Milone didn't necessarily pitch poorly in his first two outings, and it was good enough to convince Collins and pitching coach Dan Warthen that he deserves another start.

"From my vantage point, it looked like a lot of balls were up over the plate and that's not where he pitches," Collins said. "He's a guy that pitches down in the zone, changes speeds but he didn't locate and had trouble with his off-speed pitches. He got in trouble early but at least we battled back and made it a game until the end."

Collins isn't committing to rotation schedule right now, other than assuring that Milone's spot in it is safe.

"I tell you this, you guys are going to write it down and it's going to be on top of the Empire State Building in lights," Collins said. "I'm not ready for that. Right now, we're probably going to push Zack back for sure, because he thought he could use one extra day. The other one, we have decided yet. Dan and I talked and if that's the case, Dan and I talked and though maybe we better move Jake back and let him heal his finger. That's a possibility."

The Mets don't have many options right now, but if the other one is Rafael Montero, Milone is clearly the smarter choice.

Abbey Mastracco may be reached at amastracco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @abbeymastracco. Find NJ.com on Facebook.