It was another rough night behind the plate for a Mets catcher as Luis Torrens made a few uncharacteristic mistakes against the Atlanta Braves on the heels of Francisco Alvarez‘s errant throw to second base in extra innings.
In the starting lineup to give the young Alvarez a night off following a bad night defensively on Tuesday, the normally sure-handed and heady Torrens cost his team a couple of runs with his own miscues, the first of which coming on a strange play in the first inning.
With Paul Blackburn in trouble and the Mets already down 1-0, Torrens touched the ball that skipped by after a swing-and-a-miss with his mask which is not allowed. It’s a very common rule that all catchers know, but for some reason Torrens blanked which cost New York a run as it acted as a balk which brought home the runner at third base.
“I took off my mask and I had the mask in my hand and when I went to grab the ball I touched it and I immediately knew,” Torrens said through a translator after the game. “I tried to stop it, but it’s something that shouldn’t have happened.”
Another odd play involving Torrens happened in the fourth inning. On a 3-1 count and a runner on third base, Jose Butto threw a fastball inside for a ball. However, Torrens made little to no effort to even catch the ball and it went to the backstop, resulting in another run. It was called a wild pitch on Butto, but it could’ve easily been called a passed ball on Torrens.
Offensively, Torrens finished 0-for-4 as Chris Sale dominated New York over 8.2 scoreless innings. While the Mets’ entire offense looked bad against Sale, Torrens is now 2-for-his-last-25 and has seen his batting average drop to .223.
With Alvarez also struggling at the plate and behind it as well, New York suddenly has a problem at the catcher position — add it to the growing list lately.
“We did a really good job the first month, two months and a half of playing things through,” said Francisco Lindor after the loss. “And this is the time of year that we’re going through it. Every team goes through it and as a team we gotta continue to push each other. We gotta dig deep and continue to climb.
“At the end of the day, everybody here wants it and we all understand it’s a long year, we’re gonna deal with adversity. Put our heads down and work as hard as you can to get back to the winning side and then don’t look back.”
The Mets return to action on Thursday night as they close out their three-game series against the Braves, hoping to not get swept at the House of Horrors that has become Truist Park.
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