Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Miami Marlins was certainly one to forget for the Mets. From not being able to capitalize with runners in scoring position (0-for-15 in the two games) to sloppy base-running mistakes, Tuesday’s twin billing was likely the low point of the season to this point.
The bottom of the sixth inning was a fittingly mistake-filled end to the day. After Jeurys Familia walked Jon Berti with the game still easily within reach at 2-0, Berti then stole second and swiped third on a delayed steal as J.D. Davis was playing way off of the bag in the shift.
Then came the real crushing blow. After catcher Ali Sanchez stared Berti down at third base after a pitch, Sanchez lazily threw the ball back to Familia. On a delayed steal, Berti took off for home, but lost his footing. Yet he was still able to stumble his way home, basically crawling, as Familia’s throw home couldn’t be handled.
.jpg)
It was an embarrassing end to a day the Mets would like to put behind them as soon as possible.
After the game, manager Luis Rojas was brutally honest about the way the Mets played, saying the team needs to know that Miami likes to play aggressively.
“Definitely aggressive base-running. One of the things that distinguishes this team that we’re playing against, I mean they’re aggressive, almost reckless to a point,” Rojas said. “That’s how they play, but on the other end, I thought that we weren’t heads-up. We’ve always got to be on our toes for that kind of baseball because as a team, they play (that way) on the field."
Rojas said that he spoke to Davis after the game about playing too deep with Corey Dickerson at the plate, which allowed Berti to swipe third, and also spoke to him about doing a better job of holding Berti at third base.
Rojas referred to Berti swiping home as “a negligence on our end,” saying that it needed to be fixed quickly as the Mets face the Marlins again on Wednesday.
“It’s something that immediately we’ve got to fix. We’re playing these guys two more days," Rojas said. "They’re a rival in the division, they’re a team that we should know already that they’re going to do things like this, so it’s a negligence from our end.
“That shouldn’t happen. That should not happen. Especially us knowing ahead, us knowing they’re going to play very aggressive. They’re known for that. We got picked in the first inning of the first game on one of their plays, one of those drop-glove picks, no-look picks. They play aggressive and we know this. We should stay on our toes, and I don’t think we did that there. … We shouldn’t be playing that game like that, especially having a close game against a division rival like the Marlins.”
With a 12-16 record, the Mets find themselves four games out of first place in the NL East, but in such a compacted season, there’s not much room for error in terms of losing games on costly mistakes.
Rojas said that the Mets need to take this game as a “wake-up call” and answer back right away on Wednesday.
“Couple of plays there where we are not known to play like that,” Rojas said of the overall sloppy play in the doubleheader. “I know, we know we can do a better job and that’s what we’re going to come in tomorrow and show ourselves and show everybody the kind of baseball we play.
“We’ve got to bounce back, (this is a) wake-up call for us. We’ve got to come back tomorrow and play the game that we know how to play. We’ve been playing really good baseball lately and these two games were a little different than what we’ve played. We’ve got to pick it up right away tomorrow.”
