Mets lose on David Wright's big day, drop third in a row
Juan Soto of the Mets watches his ninth-inning potential game-tying home run go foul against the Cincinnati Reds at Citi Field on Saturday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Francisco Lindor apparently is so close to being named the next Mets captain that MLB.com accidentally posted a video this past week that included Lindor in a compilation of Mets captains.
The video — which was quickly deleted but has been saved for posterity because that’s how the internet works — apparently was created as part of the Mets’ celebration of former captain David Wright on Saturday.
Regardless of whether Lindor succeeds Wright as captain, he probably won’t look back fondly on his own performance in Saturday’s 5-2 loss to the Reds as the Mets dropped their third in a row and practically were booed out of the stadium.
Lindor went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts and didn’t come through in the biggest moment when the Mets had a chance of coming back from a 5-2 deficit with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth. Lindor’s bat was shattered as he hit an inning-ending groundout to first.
A smattering of boos was heard after Lindor’s at-bat. They were the first boos on Saturday since the sellout crowd of 42,605 jeered Wright’s mention of “the Wilpon family” during his No. 5 retirement speech. The Mets’ former owners are not beloved at Citi Field.
But they would not be the last boos directed at the Mets on a day full of positive emotion for Wright and much less than that for the current squad once the Mets fell behind.
The Mets had another chance in the ninth when the first two batters reached against closer Emilio Pagan.
After Lindor grounded into a hard-hit 3-6 forceout, Juan Soto, on 3-and-2, sent a screaming drive down the rightfield line. However, the potential tying three-run home run was just to the foul side of the pole in right (a crew chief review confirmed the foul call).
Soto wound up striking out on a checked swing called by third-base umpire Alex Tossi. Manager Carlos Mendoza called it “kind of like a 50-50 call there.”
Pete Alonso then hit a fly ball to the edge of the warning track in right to end it.
The Mets were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
“We just haven’t been able to get the big one,” Brandon Nimmo said. “But there’s been some really, really quality at-bats. I thought Lindor’s was a quality at-bat there at the end and it just didn’t find a hole. Obviously, Juan came within feet of tying the game. I thought he had a really quality at-bat.
“If we keep putting pressure on, it’ll come. It’ll happen.”
The other story of this game was a pair of throwing mistakes by the Mets that led to four Reds runs.
The Mets staked Clay Holmes (8-5) to a 2-0 lead on Mark Vientos’ two-out RBI single in the first and Brett Baty’s leadoff homer in the second.
In the third, the Reds had runners on first and second with none out when TJ Friedl bunted through a pitch for a strike. Catcher Luis Torrens for some reason fired an attempted pickoff throw to first even though Alonso had charged on the bunt attempt and was on the infield grass and Baty — coming over from second — was a few steps behind first.
The throw skipped into rightfield for a run-scoring error. The tying run then scored on Matt McLain’s single.
“It’s not a play that we’ve got on there,” Mendoza said. “We’ve seen it at times where [Torrens does] kind of like a delayed pick to bases. In that situation, it’s not the right decision, obviously.”
Cincinnati took a 3-2 lead in the fourth on Jake Fraley’s two-out RBI single and made it 5-2 in the sixth, thanks in part to an errant throw by third baseman Ronny Mauricio.
There were two on and one out when Reid Garrett replaced Holmes. Tyler Stephenson hit a potential inning-ending double-play ball to Mauricio, but his throw to second was so wide that Baty had to dive for it to maintain contact with the bag and record the out as a run scored.
The Reds picked up another run-that-shouldn’t-have-been- scored when Fraley doubled down the rightfield line. It was 5-2.
Mauricio made a similar off-target throw to Baty’s barehand side in the fourth. Baty was able to record the out without harm because it was out No. 3.
Of the loss on Wright’s big day, Nimmo said: “Definitely disappointing to lose on his day. But it made it no less special.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
