The game came down to the ability to make a throw from the outfield to the plate on a fly. The Phillies did in the ninth inning and the Mets did not in the 10th, leading to a 2-1 loss for the Mets Friday night at Citi Field.
The Mets were mostly impotent offensively in this game. But in the ninth inningStarling Marte led off with a booming double to right field that just missed being a home run. Francisco Lindor followed with a blast to center field that just missed being a homer, but ended up an out, advancing Marte to third base.
Daniel Vogelbach was sent up as a pinch hitter and he squared one up and hit a line drive to left field which was caught. Marte tagged up as the winning run. But Matt Vierling made a throw to home that was up the line but in the air. Catcher J.T. Realmuto caught it, went back to the plate and tagged Marte out, sending the game to extra innings.
In the top of the 10th, the Phillies advanced the zombie runner to third on an infield groundout and then the next batter hit a ball to Marte in right field. Marte made a throw right on line to home. But it bounced right before the plate and Tomas Nido was unable to make the catch, allowing the winning run to score.
It looked like the same situation was going to play out in the bottom of the 10th. The Mets’ zombie runner advanced to third on an out. But Tyler Naquin was called out on strikes on a pitch outside of the strike zone and Luis Guillorme grounded out to end the game.
It wasted another fine performance by Max Scherzer, who allowed a run in the first inning and nothing else over seven innings.
When the Mets were beating up on the Phillies earlier in the year, they could always count on Philadelphia to make some defensive gaffes. But that was not the case in this game. No errors to capitalize on and no offense led to a disheartening loss.
Gut Reaction: This game felt like a playoff game. Well pitched, Not a lot of runs , Good defense. It’s hard to win when you go 0-7 RISP but they almost did it except for a good throw by Vierling. It was a very
good game (Except for the result and Apple TV ,which sucked) .
Diaz is amazing! LGM
I agree with your comments, Metsense.
I will add that, for the life of me, I do not understand why umpires continue to be allowed to have “personal strike zones”! That home plate ump clearly was calling pitches off the plate strikes. Still, the Mets (knowing that) should have been swinging at those pitches.
My opinion is that umpiring is better now than it’s been in my lifetime.
It’s just that it’s not something which we can expect humans to be perfect. It was one thing when we didn’t have the technology. But we’re not far from having it in place in the majors and we should embrace its coming arrival.