The Mets dropped the series opener to the Dodgers 7-5 in 13 innings on a very cool and rainy Friday night at Citi Field. Tonight’s contest not only featured a one hour and 38 minute rain delay, there were also multiple plays I have never seen in a baseball game before (derogatory).
The game started out uneventfully enough. Both starting pitchers worked around a walk in the first inning. The Mets were able to erase a one-out walk by Mookie Betts on one of Francisco Alvarez’s patented back-pick throws to first base. Clayton Kershaw struggled to find the strike zone early in his second start back and issued a four-pitch walk to Francisco Lindor to lead off the bottom of the first, but Starling Marte flew out and then Juan Soto grounded into a double play to end the inning. After Brandon Nimmo robbed Will Smith of a hit with yet another fantastic leaping grab against the wall, Kershaw bounced back to pitch a 1-2-3 second.
The third inning is when things started to get weird. Michael Conforto—playing his first game back at Citi Field since leaving the Mets—singled to lead off the inning. Tommy Edman then popped up for the second out, but Griffin Canning then walked Shohei Ohtani. Mookie Betts then hit a fly ball to deep right-center on which Tyrone Taylor and Juan Soto collided to knock the ball out of Taylor’s glove. Taylor somehow managed to miraculously recover and make the catch with his bare hand and both runners tagged up. The Mets challenged the play, arguing that Conforto left the base too early to tag up. But the safe call was upheld because the rule states that you can tag up when the ball first touches the glove, not when the catch is made.
After that bizarre play is when the rain began falling heavily and the tarp went on the field for over an hour and a half. The delay was long enough that neither Canning nor Kershaw reappeared and the game then became a battle of the bullpens. When play resumed, Max Kranick entered the game, inheriting runners at second and third with two outs and a 3-1 count on Freddie Freeman. Jeff McNeil also came in the game in left field to replace Brandon Nimmo, who left the game with a stiff neck. Freeman walked and that base on balls was added to Canning’s ledger. One could argue that the better strategy for Carlos Mendoza would have been to bring in a stopper who misses more bats and then give Kranick a clean inning for long relief. Kranick did get the ground balls he needed, but they did not result in outs. Will Smith had hit a sharp grounder to short that Lindor was able to keep on the slick infield, but was unable to throw Smith out. Michael Conforto scored on the play to put the Dodgers on the board. Teoscar Hernández followed with a sharp grounder that went under Baty’s glove, scoring two more runs to make it 3-0 Dodgers. It wasn’t an easy play, but it was a ball which Baty probably should have at least kept on the infield. Kranick stopped the bleeding there, but all three runs were charged to Canning.
The Mets scratched back to within a run against Matt Sauer working in long relief for the Dodgers. Brett Baty hit a one-out solo homer in the bottom of the third to put the Mets on the board. In the fourth, Starling Marte led off the inning with a bunt single and advanced to second on a throwing error. Marte then advanced to third on a groundout by Soto. In the second unusual play of the evening, Pete Alonso then flew out to right field deep enough that it seemed almost certain Marte would score. Instead, Teoscar Hernández made a perfect throw from the outfield to gun Marte down at home. However, Marte was awarded home plate because the third base umpire called interference on Max Muncy—not for making contact with Marte as he tried to tag up, but for blocking Marte’s line of sight to right field to see when to tag up. That run ended up looming extremely large.
The Dodgers added two runs against José Buttó in the top of the fifth—once again with two outs. After retiring the first two batters, Buttó walked Will Smith and then hit Teoscar Hernández with a pitch. That loss of control came back to bite him, as back-to-back singles by Max Muncy and Andy Pages plated two runs to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 5-2. There the score would remain until the ninth. José Castillo had the best outing as a Met, striking out Michael Conforto to end the rally in the fifth and retiring all five batters he faced. Ryne Stanek also disposed of both batters he faced and Génesis Cabrera contributed two scoreless innings with two strikeouts. Meanwhile, Ben Casparius followed up Matt Sauer’s three innings of long relief for the Dodgers with three of his own, which were brilliant. He allowed only one baserunner and struck out six batters.
But the tenor of the game changed very quickly in the ninth thanks to a meltdown by major Dodgers bullpen offseason acquisition Tanner Scott. Starling Marte led off the inning with a single. Soto then popped out to short, but Alonso walked to bring the tying run to the plate. Jeff McNeil then delivered a huge hit—a two-run triple into the left field corner to bring the Mets within a run and put the tying run 90 feet away. Tyrone Taylor then laced a single to tie the game at five runs apiece. Scott was pulled from the game by Dave Roberts having recorded just one out. He was replaced by Alex Vesia, who came up huge for the Dodgers. He got Francisco Alvarez to fly out for the second out, allowed a single to Brett Baty, but then struck out Luisangel Acuña to send the game to extra innings.
Both the Mets and Dodgers pulled off Houdini acts in the tenth to keep the game tied. Edwin Díaz hit Freddie Freeman with a pitch and walked Will Smith to load the bases with nobody out in the top of the tenth. But then Teoscar Hernández grounded into a force out at home on which Pete Alonso exorcised his demons by making a good throw home. Díaz then induced a double play grounder from Max Muncy to end the inning. Vesia stayed in the game to begin the bottom of the tenth and struck out Francisco Lindor and then made way for Lou Trivino, who hit Starling Marte with a pitch to begin his outing. Juan Soto then grounded out to first, advancing the runners to second and third. Pete Alonso then gave one a ride, but Andy Pages made the catch on the warning track to end the inning.
Reed Garrett delivered a clutch 1-2-3 top of the 11th to keep the Dodgers off the board yet again. But the Mets loaded the bases in the bottom of the eleventh against Anthony Banda on a pair of walks—one intentional and one not—and failed to score. Luis García, the Dodgers’ eighth pitcher of the night, went to 3-0 on Luisangel Acuña, teetering right on the edge of walking in the winning run. Acuña took a strike, but then swung at a borderline 3-1 pitch and grounded out to third to send the game to the 12th.
Because José Azócar pinch ran for Pete Alonso as the ghost runner in the 11th, Luis Torrens came in the game at first base; it was the first time Torrens had played first base since 2021. Reed Garrett was nails again in the top of the 12th, retiring the Dodgers 1-2-3 once more. The Mets continued to invent new ways to not score in extra innings as well. In the bottom of the 12th, after Lindor was intentionally walked and Marte put down a beautiful sacrifice bunt to advance the runners, Luis Torrens came to bat for the first time in the game. And what did he do? You guessed it! He grounded into a double play.
The Mets used the last pitcher available in their bullpen in Huascar Brazobán in the top of the 13th and that is when the dam finally broke. Teoscar Hernández doubled down the left field line to lead off the inning and score the ghost runner Will Smith to give the Dodgers a 6-5 lead. Hyeseong Kim then singled to advance Hernández to third. In about the half dozenth weird tag play of the game Andy Pages flew out to right to score Hernández on a sacrifice fly, but Kim was doubled off first base. Because Hernández had to look around Brett Baty as he was tagging up, the Dodgers dugout gave the third base umpire the business, wondering why he didn’t also call Baty for obstruction like they did Muncy earlier in the game. Nevertheless, the Dodgers were now up 7-5.
The Mets went down meekly in the bottom of the 13th as García took the mound for his third inning of work. McNeil, Taylor, and Alvarez were retired in order, putting our collective suffering to an end. Baseball is stupid. It is after 1:00am. I am exhausted.
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Win Probability Added
What’s WPA?
Big Mets winner: Reed Garrett, +60.7% WPA
Big Mets loser: Luisangel Acuña, -35.5% WPA
Mets pitchers: +32.1% WPA
Mets hitters: -82.1% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Jeff McNeil’s two-run triple in the bottom of the ninth, +30.8% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Teoscar Hernández’s double to lead off the 13th, -23.3% WPA
