Friday night time with the Mets desperately attempting to guard a two-run lead in opposition to the San Francisco Giants, the participant that carried the crew for a lot of the early a part of the season made a pricey mistake.
With one out, David Robertson, the Mets’ greatest high-leverage reliever, obtained Joc Pederson to roll over on a cutter. A floor ball went proper to Pete Alonso on the fringe of the grime, however he bobbled the ball and rattled himself. With Robertson working over to cowl first, he overthrew it to miff the flip. Pederson was secure.
Robertson then walked J.D. Davis and rookie catcher Patrick Bailey teed off on Robertson for a three-run homer. The Mets blew their thirteenth lead of the final calendar month.
Alonso shouldered a lot of the blame.
“It took a hop kind of snaked back towards me a little bit and I made a misplay,” Alonso mentioned after the 5-4 loss at Citi Field. “And then I rushed the throw to D-Rob when I didn’t need to. My internal clock was going a little faster than what was actually happening. And that led to the throw.”
So goes the story of the Mets over the month of June — a month that seemingly price them a shot on the playoffs. Each episode is seemingly the identical.
The Mets have fallen into a well-known sample of blowing late-game leads by making pricey errors just like the one Alonso made. The reasoning, based on supervisor Buck Showalter, basic supervisor Billy Eppler and even proprietor Steve Cohen, is that the crew is attempting to do an excessive amount of. They’re urgent. They’re dashing by way of performs as an alternative of processing them first.
It’s change into greater than only a bodily situation now; it’s change into a psychological as properly. The supervisor is having to handle extra than simply what’s taking place on the sector.
“I talked with him last night after the game. So you know, just checking on him,” Showalter mentioned Saturday earlier than the Mets performed the second sport of a three-game set in opposition to the Giants. “I know it means so much to these guys. Just to see them go through this is painful because they wanted it to end yesterday.”
No one is happier concerning the finish of June than the Mets, who went 7-19 final month.
When the Mets began skidding uncontrolled in June, Alonso began slumping proper alongside along with his crew. To make issues worse, he went on the injured record after being hit by a fastball in Atlanta and he hasn’t been the identical since he got here off of it. Alonso has slashed simply .149/.216/.319 with a .535 OPS and 10 strikeouts. He did have two doubles and two dwelling runs, however the manufacturing dropped off considerably from March/April and May when he hit 20 dwelling runs.
The wrist, he mentioned, will not be an element, although Showalter mentioned he wouldn’t let anybody know if it was anyway. The metrics are high-quality. The exit velocity is basically the identical and the barrel proportion is up from final season.
“I’m having, technically, probably the worst month I’ve ever had in the big leagues,” Alonso mentioned. “Over the past, I would say five, six days, I’ve been having relatively decent at-bats. And then when I hit something hard, it just always seems to find a glove. For me, this month has been really tough with a lack of performance and then dealing with an injury and then coming back from it. So it’s just been a tough month.”
Alonso is a key clubhouse chief, so he’s shouldering the blame for a lot of the Mets’ 15-game slide down the standings. Baseball is usually described as a person sport disguised as a crew sport, and it’s true that generally groups go the best way of their leaders. But this isn’t all on Alonso and the Mets are hoping an important chief understands that and takes a few of the blame off of himself.
“That’s frustrating for a guy who’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing and not getting a return for it,” Showalter mentioned. “And then compound it with the error last night, you know, you just keep hoping that that was rock bottom for him. And that baseball won’t give him more than he can handle. It’s cruel.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Left-hander Jose Quintana must be cleared to return to the Major League crew quickly after throwing 64 pitches in a rehab begin with Triple-A Syracuse on Friday night time. Quintana (bone graft surgical procedure) allowed two earned runs on 4 hits, walked three and struck out two over 2 2/3 innings in his first rehab sport on the Triple-A degree. The Mets haven’t but determined if he’ll want yet one more rehab begin.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com