Tuesday’s loss to the Nationals wasn’t the cleanest game for the Mets.
While New York’s offense has been the reason for many of the team’s losses this year, the 9-6 defeat to Washington in the second of their four-game series can be squarely put on the defense. Even more so than Nolan McLean‘s ineffective outing.
It started in the second. With the Mets already up 5-0, Nationals slugger James Wood hit a booming shot toward the left-center field gap with the bases loaded. Rookie left fielder Nick Morabito, in his MLB debut, tracked it down and had a beat on it, but when he leapt, the ball hit off his glove and kicked away from him and Tyrone Taylor, who was backing up. Taylor, however, did not immediately go for the ball, allowing Wood to pick up an inside-the-park grand slam.
“He lost track of the baseball,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of Taylor on that play. “He went after and didn’t know where the ball was. Yeah, that’s a tough break there.”
Morabito said the same thing but lamented he could not make the play.
“He hit it pretty hard,” Morabito said of Wood. “Went back, and just missed it. Hit the palm of my hand. Should have had it.”
As Mendoza said, it was a “tough break,” but what followed was anything but.
The Nationals tied the score at 5-5 in the third, but with runners on first and third and no outs, Luis Torrens let a pitch get past him. The play allowed Daylen Lile to get to second and CJ Abrams to score on the passed ball, giving the Nationals the lead they would not relinquish.
Then in the fourth inning, Marcus Semien botched a ground ball and made a throwing error to second instead of taking the sure out at first base, allowing the Nationals to have runners on second and third with one out. The next batter, with the infield in, Abrams hits a sharp grounder to Bo Bichette at short. Bichette threw the ball to Torrens in time to get Wood at home, but the Mets’ backstop muffed the throw and allowed the Nats to score another run.
“He had a bad game today,” Mendoza said of Torrens. “Was one of those where he has to turn the page. Passed ball, doesn’t make the tag play. Wasn’t at his best today.”
The Mets made two errors on Tuesday, in addition to the defensive miscues. Entering Tuesday’s game, the Mets as a team have 24 errors, which is middle of the road in MLB. However, the team has made four errors over its last four games.
“Not good. Past four days or so,” Mendoza said of the defense. “Making errors on routine plays. We’re a good team defensively. We showed that… But we’re in a stretch where we have to clean it up.”
The poor defensive performance put a halt to the Mets’ momentum. They were winners of six of their last seven games, but the team is confident that days like Tuesday are the outlier and they can be better and get back to their winning ways.
“I don’t think it’s been in our identity,” Bichette said. “We’ve been playing clean baseball all year. Days like this happen. We have to pick it back up and play better tomorrow for sure.”
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