Mark Vientos had a week’s worth of adventures at third base in the first six innings of the Mets’ 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night at Citi Field.
With the Mets having several players able to play multiple positions, there are many combinations for Carlos Mendoza to choose from. On a rainy night with Kodai Senga on the mound, the skipper opted to have Brett Baty at second base and Jeff McNeil as the DH with Luisangel Acuña available off the bench. Naturally, after serving as the DH on Monday, the ball found Vientos, who is thought to be the least sure fielder of the bunch.
On two occasions, Vientos had balls hit right at him that ended up being doubles thanks to a wicked hop and bad luck.
The first came with one out in the top of the second inning when a 91.2 mph bouncer off Adam Frazier’s bat skimmed off the slick surface and ate Vietnos alive, taking a hard bounce off the dirt and into his chest. The ball bounced all the way to the tarp up the left field line to put two in scoring position.
But Senga was masterful, getting a strikeout on a nasty forkball and an easy bouncer to Vientos for him to make up for the misplay.
The second came with two down and a runner on first in the top of the sixth when a 99.3 mph smash by Jared Triolo went straight through the webbing of his glove as he went down to make a backhanded play on the ball.
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“From the dugout, it happened so fast, I didn’t know what happened,” Mendoza said after the game. “Somebody told me it went through the webbing, and I was like, ‘Man, tough break there.'”
The play, which was not ruled an error, led to an earned run for Senga as reliever Reed Garrett entered and walked the next two batters to force in the tying run.
Vientos worked on the pocket as the Mets made a pitching change and had a clubbie tighten the webbing during the next half inning, but didn’t change his glove for the eighth inning.
In the ninth, the manager used his bench, moving Baty to third and inserting Acuña at second. And the new second baseman made the game’s final play, as he was positioned well to handle Joey Bart’s liner up the middle for the game’s final out.
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