The Mets did a great job of plating two runs in the ninth to send Saturday's matchup with the Washington Nationals into extra innings, but could the outcome have changed if manager Carlos Mendoza left Edwin Diaz in for a second inning?
Diaz logged a seven-pitch, scoreless 10th inning, but Mendoza went with Tyler Rogers — pitching for the third straight day — to handle the 11th. While Rogers came close to pitching a clean inning, Daylen Lile hit a two-run, inside-the-park homer to put the Nationals ahead.
We'll never know if the outcome would have changed with Diaz on the mound instead, but it's a fair question to ask the Mets' skipper.
So when Mendoza was asked if he considered using Diaz for a second inning, the second-year manager said he didn't.
"He pitched two nights ago, got hot yesterday," Mendoza explained. "We're only tied. One inning today."
Diaz tossed 15 pitches, striking out two batters, on Thursday to finish off the Padres and pick up the series win. He was warming up in the ninth inning of Friday's series opener against the Nats when Chris Devenski started to pitch into trouble. Diaz did sit back down once Devenski righted the ship.
After pitching 53.2 innings in 54 games last season — the first since returning from knee surgery — Diaz has eclipsed that, tossing 59.1 innings across 57 games.
Mets spoil chances to win
In the ninth, the Mets were in prime position to walk off the Nats and their closer, Jose Ferrer.
Ferrer had allowed two runs to allow the Mets to cut their deficit to 3-2 in the eighth inning, but Nationals interim manager Miguel Cairo asked his closer to get three more outs in the ninth and couldn't.
The Mets had the bases loaded with one out when Brandon Nimmo came to the plate. The lefty Ferrer got Nimmo down swinging on a 1-2 slider in the dirt to pick up the important second out. Starling Marte followed, striking out swinging on a 1-2 sinker that went 100 mph away from the veteran slugger, stranding the winning run at third.
"He made pitches, we had some really good at-bats, had the bases loaded with a guy up, you feel good about your chances, even though Ferrer can be tough left-on-left, you take your chances with Nim putting the ball in play," Mendoza said of the situation in the ninth. "He got him that time. He executed, then he got Marte with two outs. All the way to that point, the guys took some really good at-bats there."
The Mets would have another chance to win in the 10th with runners on first and second and no out, but Francisco Alvarez grounded into a double play and Ronny Mauricio lined out to left field with the winning run again at third base.
New York finished the game 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position and left 13 on base.
Defensive inconsistencies
After officially making an error with a few defensive miscues mixed in during Friday's win, the Mets batted the ball around again during Saturday's game.
The biggest miscues came in the second inning. Down 1-0, Riley Adams hit a bloop single to right field that Juan Soto tried to play on a bounce, but it skipped over his glove and rolled to the wall, allowing one run to score. The next batter, Pete Alonso threw the ball high to Nolan McLean, giving the Nats an extra out and the team's second error of the inning. With two outs, McLean threw a wild pitch, allowing an unearned run to score from third base.
"We’ve been inconsistent," Mendoza said of the team's defense. "We go through stretches where we play clean and then go through stretches where that happens. We don’t have too much time, but the one thing we can do here is turn the page because we have a 1 o’clock tomorrow. Even though we didn’t play a clean game early, guys battled back and we were in the position to win that game, just didn’t do it."
Read the full article here