Mets can't take series from Dodgers after comedy of errors in field results in blown lead
New York Mets pitcher Reed Garrett (75) reacts after Los Angeles Dodgers' Will Smith (16) scored on a throwing error by Mets third base Brett Baty during the eighth inning on Thursday. Credit: AP/Jae C. Hong
LOS ANGELES — It’s easy to forget it when you’re watching these two blue-chip teams bludgeon each other over the course of an incredibly tight four-game set.
Despite the collective star power of the Mets and Dodgers, the massive payrolls and the high expectations, this ultimately is a game of high-stakes catch.
“We didn’t play catch,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.
On Thursday afternoon, that meant the Mets dropped a heartbreaker, losing to the Dodgers, 6-5, at Dodger Stadium.
The Mets, who feasibly could have swept the defending World Series champions, instead were victimized by poor situational hitting and Brett Baty’s error and left Chavez Ravine with a split — though they did take the season series, 4-3.
The Mets, who had led 4-0, took a 5-3 lead into the eighth before the Dodgers scored three runs.
Reed Garrett, who came into the day with an 0.68 ERA — second among all qualified relievers — issued a leadoff walk to Mookie Betts and a double by Will Smith that drew the Dodgers within 5-4. It was the first run Garrett had allowed in 10 innings.
And that’s when the hijinks began.
With one out, Andy Pages hit a roller that Baty gloved at third. The Mets had Smith caught in a rundown between third and home, but instead of throwing to Francisco Alvarez, Baty — who saw Smith stutter-step — double-clutched in an effort to deke the runner.
When Smith broke for the plate, Baty’s throw bounced in front of Alvarez. Garrett, who was backing up the play, snagged the ball, but, with Alvarez in front of him, he couldn’t get his glove down in time to tag Smith, who scored the tying run.
“I thought he was going to come back,” Baty said of Smith. “It’s just a very, very dumb mistake and it can’t happen in that situation. You’ve got to give [the ball] up early and get him running back toward third base. Terrible, terrible play.”
With runners on first and second and two outs, former Met Michael Conforto made his old team pay, lining Garrett’s first-pitch cutter the opposite way and driving in Pages with the go-ahead run.
The loss stings particularly because the Mets were primed to make a very loud statement this week. They held late leads in the first two games of the series as well and lost both leads in the ninth (though they salvaged a win in the opener thanks to some extra-innings mojo).
“It felt like we gave that one away,” Mendoza said. “We were sloppy today, we didn’t play well and it cost us there . . . The at-bats with runners on base were sloppy, too.”
The Mets were 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left 13 men on base, squandering solo homers by Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte.
Alonso went 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs, including a two-out single in the eighth that put the Mets up 5-3.
Alonso kicked off the scoring in the second with his 15th home run, hitting Landon Knack’s first-pitch fastball 408 feet to rightfield to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. His 55 RBIs are the most in baseball, it was his fourth homer in five days, and he has 12 RBIs in that span. He also extended his on-base streak to 14 games.
Alonso is one homer shy of tying David Wright for second in Mets history and is 11 behind Darryl Strawberry’s franchise-record 252 homers.
Back-to-back homers by Nimmo and Marte (3-for-4) in the third made it 3-0 and the Mets added one more in that third after Knack hit Alonso with a pitch, walked Jeff McNeil and gave up a single to Tyrone Taylor to load the bases. Baty hit a moderately shallow sacrifice fly to left that Alonso managed to beat out for a 4-0 lead, but the Mets’ offense mostly sputtered after that.
Knack walked Nimmo and Marte with one out in the fourth, ending his afternoon in favor of Jack Dreyer, who walked Juan Soto to bring up Alonso. Alonso struck out swinging on a 2-and-2 slider and McNeil flied out to leave the bases loaded.
The Mets had more chances to pad their lead in the sixth. Marte led off with a single and Alonso, facing Jose Urena, hit a fast-sinking liner that dropped in front of a sliding Teoscar Hernandez to put runners on first and second. A wild pitch allowed both to advance, but McNeil struck out swinging and Smith was able to gun down Marte straying from third to end the inning.
Mendoza said the pickoff was his fault, as he had instructed Marte to be aggressive in that spot.
“That’s a good team,” Mendoza said. “When you’re giving extra outs, they’re going to make you pay.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
