Unusual suspects strike again for Mets
Nick Plummer of the Mets watches the flight of his ninth-inning home run against the Phillies at Citi Field on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
‘One swing can change everything.”
Truer words were never spoken by a giddy Eduardo Escobar, who couldn’t stop smiling at his locker late Sunday night. Even after delivering the walk-off double in the 10th inning that secured the Mets’ 5-4 victory and three-game sweep of the Phillies, Escobar still had trouble wrapping his brain around what happened.
“Three times,” he said, referring to Pete Alonso being walked in front of him, twice intentionally, including that 10th inning. “It’s unbelievable. First time in my career.”
A few minutes later, Escobar continued: “I didn’t feel disrespected. It’s a baseball decision. You want to face the guy that’s struggling.”
Here’s the problem with these 2022 Mets: Often the player who ends up whacking you at the end is the one you least expect. As much as you try to dodge a sizzling Francisco Lindor or tiptoe around a May sledgehammer in Alonso, up rises an Escobar. And even before him, the guy Phillies closer Corey Knebel probably never heard of before this weekend: Nick Plummer, who was summoned Saturday from Triple-A Syracuse.
All Plummer did Sunday night was make his first career major-league start, botch a sinking liner in leftfield and go hitless in his first three at-bats, including a pair of strikeouts. Yet there he was leading off the ninth, Mets down 4-3, even though Jeff McNeil and J.D. Davis were available.
Why didn’t McNeil hit for him? It was simple. In Buck Showalter’s mind, for all practical purposes, the Mets didn’t have any outfielders left. He didn’t want McNeil playing the field at all Sunday night — the official explanation was the need for a breather — so he was saving him to bat for Patrick Mazeika, which he later did (grounding out). And if McNeil did reach, Showalter intended to replace him with Brandon Nimmo, who was capable only of running the bases because of a banged-up wrist.
As for Plummer? “He was our best option,” Showalter said.
That was easy enough for him to say afterward. The only way an emergency sub from Triple-A winds up being the “best option” is when there’s nobody else left.
Showalter may be a master tactician, but even he isn’t smart enough to expect someone’s first major-league hit in a situation like that. He couldn’t have imagined Plummer jumping on a first-pitch, center-cut, 96-mph fastball from Knebel and launching it a few rows deep (389 feet) into the second deck of the Coca-Cola Corner. No manager is that smart.
“Pretty surreal,” Plummer said.
That’s also an accurate summation of the Mets’ season to date, and Sunday night was another bizarre chapter. The difference this year is that all the weird stuff turns out strangely positive.
On Sunday, with the Mets protecting a 3-1 lead, they lost Drew Smith to a dislocated pinkie in the seventh when he tried to field a sharp comebacker hit by J.T. Realmuto.
“I thought it was broken, the way it looked,” said Smith, who was relieved when X-rays were negative. “I dodged a bullet.”
The Mets have been getting chewed up by injuries lately, and they can ill afford to lose another bullpen arm. Fortunately for them,Smith shouldn’t be sidelined very long. And that took some of the sting out of watching Adam Ottavino inexplicably serve up an 0-and-2 fastball that Nick Castellanos turned into a three-run homer with two outs in the eighth.
It was a terrible miss by Ottavino and a mistake that figured to give the Phillies a chance to leave Flushing with some small fraction of their dignity intact. But that’s not how this rivalry is going this season.
The Mets aren’t into charity. And manager Joe Girardi played right into their hands when he subsequently removed Castellanos for defensive replacement Roman Quinn.
If everything went as planned with the 4-3 lead, Girardi figured Castellanos was done at the plate, anyway. But then Plummer happened, and when the Phillies started the 10th with the ghost runner at second base, Escobar began tying on his hero’s cape.
Kyle Schwarber was first up and sliced a high-arching foul pop that drifted toward the Phillies’ dugout. Escobar gave chase, then stretched as far as possible beyond the rail to snag the baseball — or at least half of it. The other half clearly was poking out of the webbing.
With two outs, and now Quinn on deck rather than Castellanos, the Mets had Edwin Diaz intentionally walk Bryce Harper. Then Diaz made sport of Quinn by whiffing him on four pitches.
By then, the conclusion felt inevitable. With one out, the Phillies gave Alonso first base again. Escobar attacked the first pitch, a knuckle curve, and drilled an absolute laser to rightfield. Off the bat, it was game over, and the Mets mobbed him moments after he touched second.
“Baseball gives me opportunities all the time,” Escobar said.
On this night, it was a second chance to crush the soul of the Phillies, who now are 10 1⁄2 games behind the Mets. One swing indeed.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
