The Mets and the Twins closed out their series today at Target Field and, while there was a half-inning of fun Mets baseball, this game was a frustrating, ugly slog that ended with a 4-3 walk-off loss.
Huascar Brazobán took the role of opener today, and looked excellent in his first inning of work. After walking the leadoff batter in the second, Brazobán was pulled in favor of Justin Hagenman, making his big league debut. The Voorhes, NJ native was solid in his three and a third innings of work, striking out four and walking none, with three hits and one earned run on his ledger. Said earned run came in the fifth, when Willi Castro doubled and then scored on a Harrison Bader single. Although the run was credited to Hagenman, José Buttó had replaced him in the game at that point.
Bader himself scored two batters later when Byron Buxton drove him in on a hit that should’ve been a single, but due to a poor route from Acuna and an in-between throw in from Tyrone Taylor allowed him to take second.
The Mets had a few chances to score early, but couldn’t get the job done. In the second, Jesse Winker led off the inning with a double down the right field line. A Brandon Nimmo hit followed, and Winker was somehow sent home on a ball dropping into shallow left field, and was tagged out at the plate.
In the third, Pete Alonso singled and Nimmo walked, putting two on with two outs, but Luisangel Acuña struck out after a long at-bat to end the thread. Similarly, in the top of the fifth, the Mets had the bases loaded with one out, and Juan Soto faced new pitcher Danny Coulombe. On Coulombe’s first pitch, Soto hit a weak grounder to the right side, which was handled by Edouard Julien for an unassisted double play.
In the bottom of the sixth, Buttó issued a one-out walk to Ryan Jeffers. A Brooks Lee groundout pushed Jeffers to second. Castro then hit a ball that Alonso ranged over to grab and tossed back to Buttó. Buttó beat the play, but umpire Hunter Wendelstedt blew the call and, since the Mets had ‘wasted’ their challenge on the Castro double earlier in the game, the safe called stood. The effect of that was that, after the safe call, Jeffers made a heads up play to score from third, putting the Twins up 3-0.
Speaking of Wendelstedt, there was a scary moment in the top of the seventh when Taylor lined a ball off of Wendelstedt’s temple, sending him to the ground in a heap. He was able to leave the field on his feet, which was a relief for all, but especially Taylor. Ryne Stanek worked around a walk and a weird play by Acuña to get through the seventh unscathed.
In the top of the eighth, Lindor singled to lead off the inning. Soto struck out on a bad pitch outside, the surest sign of a slump that we’ve seen from Soto yet. However, Alonso and Winker hit back to back doubles to drive in two, bringing the Mets within a run with just one out. After a dreadful 0-3 in his first three at bats, Acuña hit a ground ball in exactly the right spot to bring in Winker with the tying run. After Acuña stole second, a Taylor diving liner was caught by Bader to end the inning.
A.J. Minter worked a scoreless eighth to get the Mets to the top of the ninth tied. After quick outs to Brett Baty and Luis Torrens, Lindor walked to put the winning run on first. However, another Soto strikeout stranded Lindor and ended the inning.
Edwin Díaz got the call for the ninth inning, and faced Bader to start the inning. Bader walked, putting the winning run on. Díaz threw over twice to Bader, and on the next pitch Bader took off for second. Though originally called safe, the Crew Chief review overturned the play, and Bader was out. As Keith Hernandez pointed out, the ‘stupid headfirst slide’ is what led to the out. Diaz recovered by striking out Julien for the second out, and then struck out Buxton to send the game into extras.
With Soto as the Manfred man on second, Alonso led off the inning with a walk, putting two on for Winker. However, a hard-hit ball to second led to a 4-5-3 double play to push Soto to third with two outs. Nimmo popped up the first pitch he saw for the third out in what can only be described as an impossibly frustrating two pitch sequence.
The problem with running a bullpen game in the middle of a 13 game stretch is that you run the risk of hurting future games by running through so many arms. This is compounded by an extra-innings game, and so when the Mets entered the tenth, they did so with Reed Garrett on the mound, the seventh pitcher New York trotted out there.
On the third pitch thrown, Ty France walked off the Mets with an RBI-single that was bobbled by Taylor, though even a clean pick up wouldn’t have helped.
This is the Mets’ first series loss since the opening series against the Astros, and the first time the Mets have lost back to back games all season.
The Mets return home tomorrow to start a seven game home stand against the Cardinals. The Mets have not yet announced a starter, but will be facing Tanner Bibbee for the Red Birds.
SB Nation GameThreads
Box scores
Win Probability Added
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Big Mets winner: Luisangel Acuña, +14.0% WPA
Big Mets loser: Juan Soto, -33.7% WPA
Mets pitchers: -.01% WPA
Mets hitters: -49.9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Acuña’s RBI single in the eighth, +22.4% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Ty France’s game winning single, -19.2% WPA
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