SAN DIEGO — The Mets fought.
Towards the Padres. With home-plate umpire Emil Jimenez, repeatedly. And proper till their ultimate swing.
However a very wild night time of California baseball ended with pitching and fielding mishaps overshadowing the Mets’ pugnacity in a walk-off, 7-6, series-opening loss at a loud and sold-out Petco Park on Monday.
Frankie Montas and Huascar Brazobán imploded to flush a four-run lead within the fifth inning. Ronny Mauricio launched a game-tying homer that pressured the Padres to take their flip at bat within the ninth inning, which is when essentially the most dramatic moments of a dramatic night time unfolded.
Towards new Met Gregory Soto, Xander Bogaerts singled. A pinch-hitting Jose Iglesias — yep, that Jose Iglesias — laid down a bunt, which Soto fielded and threw to second base for the pressure out, however his wild throw pulled Francisco Lindor off the bag.
Soto retired two straight Padres batters earlier than Elias Diaz drilled a single into left-center, driving in Iglesias for the game-winning run.
“Back and forth game,” supervisor Carlos Mendoza mentioned after the Mets (62-45) wasted a grand slam from Mark Vientos and the ninth-inning shot from Mauricio and noticed their seven-game profitable streak come to an finish.
Montas (4 ⅓ innings, 5 runs) couldn’t survive the fifth inning, and the difficulty he handed to Brazobán solely escalated within the Padres’ five-run body.
After Vientos drilled a go-ahead grand slam within the prime of the fifth inning that would have been the sport’s deciding second, Montas crumbled within the backside of the inning.
A double from Fernando Tatis Jr., who was monstrous for the Padres, started the difficulty. Luis Arraez then despatched a ball to the moon, and when it got here down, it bounced the correct subject pole for a two-run homer. Manny Machado singled earlier than Bogaerts hammered a double into the left subject nook, which prompted Brazobán to enter.
“I was just missing spots,” Montas mentioned. “I got to be better hitting spots.”
With two outs, Jake Cronenworth hammered an infield single {that a} sliding Pete Alonso nabbed earlier than Brazobán misplaced the footrace to first base to attain one other run and maintain the inning alive.
“The game kind of got fast on him after that,” Mendoza mentioned of Brazoban, who then allowed two RBI singles that put the Padres forward.
Brazobán remains to be having fun with a powerful season, however the Mets’ bullpen has been overworked and in seek for reinforcements.
About as eventful a sport as may be performed in July included:
- a scare within the prime of the third inning, when Lindor bounced a tough comebacker off the again of Dylan Stop’s head. After a check-in with a coach and a number of other warmup pitches, the Padres starter remained within the sport and confronted …
- Juan Soto, who was livid over a 2-1 pitch that appeared exterior the strike zone and was referred to as a strike. After Soto was later punched out within the at-bat, he obtained into the face of Jimenez and needed to be separated by a charging-in Mendoza.
“He had a rough night. There’s no way to sugarcoat it,” Mendoza mentioned of Jimenez.
Mendoza was tossed shortly thereafter, having to look at from afar as …
- Vientos smashed a towering fly ball towards proper subject within the fourth inning. The struggling infielder/DH did, certainly, hit the ball out of the sphere of play, but it surely by no means reached the seats. Tatis waited on the monitor, timed his leap effectively and robbed the would-be two-run homer. He couldn’t achieve this once more one inning later, although, when …
- Vientos stepped as much as the plate in a second that reminded of Sport 2 of the NLCS, through which the Dodgers deliberately walked Lindor to load the bases for Vientos, and the rising star then smacked a grand slam.
A season later, and Vientos has not often seemed like the identical breakout slugger, however he did as he adopted up an intentional stroll to Jeff McNeil by demolishing a no-doubt grand slam into the correct subject seats — too deep even for Tatis to rob — and break open what had been a tie sport.
If Vientos have been making an attempt to point out he must be staying together with his present staff, his present staff’s pitching workers then mounted an argument it must be prioritized on the deadline.
