Mets rally in ninth, then lose in 13th to Dodgers
Starling Marte of the Mets connects on a fourth-inning bunt single against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field on Friday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The rematch of last year’s NLCS had just about everything: two bizarre plays, two Mets injuries, a long third-inning rain delay, and even that one Mets fan who was spotted at Pope Leo XIV’s unveiling earlier this month (the scoreboard dubbed him “Eddie from The Vatican”).
The home run apple in center even started smoking at one point, though despite Eddie’s previous experience, that did not, in fact, mean the Mets had elected a new pope.
It also had the mother of all rallies and the mother of all situational hitting woes. The Mets scored three in the ninth but couldn’t finish the job as the Dodgers prevailed, 7-5, in 13 innings at Citi Field.
The Mets stranded nine runners on base in extra innings, including three on Luis Torrens’ bases-loaded, inning-ending double play in the 12th.
Huascar Brazoban allowed a leadoff double by Teoscar Hernandez to drive in ghost runner Will Smith in the 13th. Hyeseong Kim singled to move Hernandez to third and Andy Pages hit a sacrifice fly to right to put the Dodgers up by two.
Luis Garcia then retired Jeff McNeil, Tyrone Taylor and Francisco Alvarez in order to end it.
The game took 4 hours, 8 minutes, not including a 98-minute rain delay.
“We played hard, we played tough, we had plenty of chances to win up there and unable to get it done,” McNeil said. “It’s 1:16 [a.m.], so it’s pretty draining, but yeah, it’s tough — long games and we had chances to win.”
With the Mets down 5-2, Starling Marte singled to lead off the ninth and Pete Alonso walked to bring up McNeil with one out against Tanner Scott. McNeil lined a two-run triple into the rightfield corner and Taylor singled to left to tie it. Lefty Alex Vesia got Alvarez to fly out, but Brett Baty singled to put runners at the corners for Luisangel Acuna, who struck out.
The Mets left two on in the 10th, when Juan Soto grounded out and Alonso hit a ball to the warning track in center.
The improbable end suited what was an exceptionally strange game, even by baseball standards.
The oddities started with a rain delay that felt downright cursed. The ordeal burned starter Griffin Canning, who departed with two on and two out and behind in the count to Freddie Freeman. That delay included: 1. The aforementioned smoking apple. 2. The Knicks-Pacers game on the giant scoreboard (the Knicks lost).
By the time the tarp came off, the Mets had announced that Brandon Nimmo, who collided with the wall making a second-inning catch, had to exit the game with neck stiffness. The Mets also scratched Mark Vientos right before the game for what they called precautionary reasons, the result of abdominal soreness. Both are day-to-day: Nimmo said he woke up with the sore neck, which dates to an outfield collision in 2019, and Vientos felt his left side seize up in the batting cage.
But back to that third inning, which started with Michael Conforto’s leadoff single and Shohei Ohtani’s one-out walk. Mookie Betts then hit a line drive to right that caused a collision between Taylor and Soto, making the ball pop out of Soto’s glove. Taylor, though, managed to barehand the ball on the ricochet for the out. Initially, the Mets thought they’d gotten an inning-ending double play; both runners tagged up when Soto “caught” the ball instead of Taylor, and Taylor threw to second base, where Francisco Lindor caught it and stepped on the bag.
The rulebook, though, said the initial contact is when the runner can tag, something that kept the inning alive with the runners on second and third.
And then it started raining.
After it ended, it was up to Max Kranick to finish Freeman’s at-bat. Freeman, though, walked (it was charged to Canning), loading the bases.
Will Smith lined a ball deep into the hole at short. Lindor knocked it down but couldn’t get the out at first for an RBI infield single, giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. Hernandez then hit a clean single to left to plate two more.
The Mets got one back in the bottom of the third when Baty hit a solo homer off Matt Sauer.
They got another in the fourth, thanks to more weird baseball.
With Marte at third, Alonso hit a moderately shallow fly ball; Marte tagged up and appeared to be out by a wide margin, but Max Muncy was called for obstruction, blocking Marte’s view of the play as he tagged up, meaning the run scored.
Muncy and Pages each had RBI singles off Jose Butto in the fifth to make it 5-2.
The long night will put stress on both teams’ bullpens: The Mets used eight relievers and the Dodgers seven.
“We’ve got to go back and talk to David [Peterson, the Saturday starter] and Hef [pitching coach Jeremy Hefner],” Carlos Mendoza said. “We used pretty much everyone today. We were staying away from Brazoban and had to use him, so we’ve got to see what we’ve got here.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
