Mets drop series to Nationals as bats stay cold
The Mets’ Mark Vientos reacts after striking out swinging and stranding two runners on base to end the sixth inning against the Washington Nationals at Citi Field on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Mets no longer are in control of their fate. In fact, they could win each of their final six games and still miss the playoffs.
That is the reality they face after dropping their second game in a row to Washington. Sunday’s 3-2 loss in the regular-season home finale and the Reds’ 1-0 victory over the Cubs dropped the Mets behind Cincinnati for the National League’s final wild-card spot.
The Mets and Reds both are 80-76, but Cincinnati holds the tiebreaker because it took the season series from the Mets, 4-2.
Unbelievable? Not if you’ve seen how the Mets have played during the last three months (35-52 since June 13).
“I believe it because I’ve watched it happen right in front of us,” said Brandon Nimmo, who was addressing the media when the Reds’ win went final. “Been part of it. It’s not ideal. But we can still get into this thing.”
Maybe. The Mets will finish the regular season starting Tuesday with three games in Chicago against the Cubs and then three in Miami. The Reds will host the Pirates for three and then visit Milwaukee to end their regular season.
And then there’s Arizona, which is a game behind the Mets and Reds after beating the Phillies. The Diamondbacks, who will face the Dodgers and Padres, also have a tiebreaker advantage over the Mets.
It will take some heavy lifting for the Mets to make the postseason. But they did it last year — reaching the playoffs on the day after the regular season was supposed to end — and went all the way to the NLCS.
“If anyone can do it, it’s us,” said Sean Manaea, who allowed three runs in the second inning and took the loss.
Here’s the thing: Maybe it’s just not the Mets’ year?
Francisco Alvarez led off the ninth in a 3-2 game with a drive to center that was grabbed just over the fence by Jared Young, who robbed Alvarez of what could have been a dramatic tying home run.
It was the second amazing catch by Young. Brett Baty led off the fifth with a drive to the wall. Young got a glove on it, had the ball dislodged when he hit the wall and then kicked it with his right foot hacky-sack style into the air. The ball floated into his glove for an unlikely out.
“Those are some crazy plays,” Mets centerfielder Cedric Mullins said. “In the stretch we’re in, when it really matters, to see plays like that made, it definitely deflates a little bit.”
Manaea put the Mets in a 3-0 hole in the second. The first run scored on a throwing error by Francisco Lindor. Two batters later, Nasim Nunez, who was batting .185, hit a two-run home run.
The Mets were facing righthander Jake Irvin, who came into the game with a 5.76 ERA. Luis Torrens led off the third with a double and came home on a scary play involving Daylen Lile, the speedy leftfielder who hit what proved to be the game-winning inside-the-park two-run home run in the 11th inning for Washington on Saturday.
This time Lile was chasing a fly ball hit by Mullins toward the foul line. Lile slid and initially caught the ball fair, but his slide took him into foul territory and his left knee rammed into the wall. The ball slipped out of his glove and had to be retrieved by an infielder as Lile rolled around in pain. He eventually left the game under his own power with what the Nationals called a contusion.
Torrens scored on the RBI single. Mullins, who said he thought the ball had been caught, had an awkward moment in which he was standing between first and second before heading to second and getting tagged out. The umpires convened and sent Mullins back to first because they said time had been called before he started running to second.
Lindor made it 3-2 with a homer to right in the sixth.
Mitchell Parker, who entered with a 5.85 ERA, threw 3 2⁄3 scoreless innings for the save in his first career relief appearance after 59 starts in the last two seasons.
Parker allowed a two-out single by Pete Alonso in the eighth and then threw a wild pitch. With Alonso on second, manager Carlos Mendoza had Luisangel Acuna pinch run for Alonso, and Jeff McNeil grounded out to end the inning.
Alonso has an opt-out he is expected to use after the season to make himself a free agent for the second straight year, so that single might have been his final at-bat as a Met at Citi Field. He received an ovation from the sellout crowd of 42,960 as he left the field.
Does Alonso think it might have been his last at-bat at Citi Field as a Met? Remember, we all went through this last year.
“If I had a nickel for how many times everyone in this room has said that — and I received it every time someone said it — I’d be really, really rich,” Alonso said. “Again, we’ll see what happens. I’m a firm believer that the right thing is going to happen.”
Notes & quotes. Tyrone Taylor (hamstring) went 1-for-5 in a rehab appearance in Triple-A Syracuse’s final game of the season. The Mets will decide whether to activate Taylor on Tuesday . . . The Mets set a Citi Field attendance record of 3,184,570, breaking the old mark of 3,168,571 from the ballpark’s opening season of 2009.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
