Reed It and Weep: Garret Falters as Dodgers Take Lead, Top Mets

Dodger 6 Mets 5 (Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA)

Mets Record: 39-24

Mets Streak: L1

Mets Last 10: 7-3

WP: Alex Vesia (2-0)

LP: Reed Garrett (1-2)

SV: Tanner Scott (11)

Seat On The Korner: Will Smith

We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.

               Since we don’t have enough room in the studio to bring all of the Dodger relievers who really won this game for LA, we will pick the single player that had the greatest impact on this wild one.  Will Smith smacked the New Yorkers in the face again.  With Freddie Freeman resting the day game after a night game, Smith moved up into the three hole behind Dodger superstars Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts.   The LA catcher showed why he is the most underrated player on this Dodger roster.   At the plate, he drove in the Dodgers' 2nd run of the game in the bottom of the 3rd, he doubled in their 4th run in the 8th, and eventually scored the tying run on one of the wackiest plays of the year

But Smith’s impact on this game was even more significant behind the plate.  First and foremost, he steered 4 Dodger relievers through 5 2/3 innings of a red-hot Mets lineup, including 2 innings from rookie Jack Dreyer and 2 1/3 innings from Mets recent castoff Jose Urena.  But Smith also turned the tide of this game in the top of the 6th.  With the Mets up 4-3, Marte and Alonso each singled, and they advanced to 2nd and 3rd on a wild pitch.  Up stepped the hot Jeff McNeil, and in a 9-pitch championship bout, Jose Ureña – assisted by his catcher Smith – hung in there after four 2-2 foul balls to strike out McNeil on a 96 mph heater.  But, a split second later, Smith fired down to 3rd, catching veteran Starling Marte off of 3rd base, ending the rally and any chance of the Mets expanding on their lead, a lead they eventually blew.

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Need To Know:

• The Phillies also lost, preserving the Mets game and a half first-place. The Phillies' loss to the Blue Jays was not the only one to benefit the Mets: the Atlanta Braves blew a game that they lead 10-4 in the 9th, giving up 7 runs to the Arizona Diamondbacks to lose 11-10. 

• The Mets ended up splitting the four-game series with the Dodgers, with all of the games decided late. They now move on to Colorado for three with the Rockies, with Kodai Senga taking the mound against Antonio Senzatela.

• Francisco Lindor sat out the game after x-ray discovered that the pitch that hit him in the foot leading off Wednesday's game fractured a pinky toe. While manager Carlos Mendoza said afterward that Lindor was not available to pinch hit, it does not appear an IL stint in in his future.

• Juan Soto played in his 998th career game, and, after walking twice, now has 819 walks to go along with his 212 home runs. Only two other players in major league history have more than 200 dingers and 800 free passes in their first 1,00 career games: Ted Williams and Frank Thomas (The Big Hurt, not the Big Donkey from the Mets' early years) .

• Pete Alonso has 12 RBIs in his last 5 games.  Today, he hit his 15th home run, his 6th on the 1st pitch of the at-bat.

  
  

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• Brandon Nimmo was hitting .344/.417/.500 over his last 9 games before going 1-for-4 with a home run today.   Nimmo is now tied with Daniel Murphy for 13th place on the Mets all-time RBI list with 402.

• Minor League update: Binghamton Rumble Pony Jonah Tong continues to tear up AA, leading to his designation as Eastern League Player of the Month for May. Tong went 3-2 with a 1.35 ERA over the month, striking out 42 in five starts. On May 10, he hurled 6 2/3 perfect innings as part of the first perfect game in a full-season minor league game since 2017. Could a move a little west and north to Syracuse be in the cards for Tong?

Turning Point

Bottom of the eighth inning, Mats clinging to a 5-4 lead after a walk to Mookie Betts, a Will Smith double that plated Betts and a Teoscar Hernandez fly ball that allowed Smith to move to third. Andy Pages, who broke up Wednesday's shutout, hit ground ball that third baseman Brett Baty, playing in, fielded cleanly but threw errantly to home to try to nail Smith. The ball got by catcher Francisco Alvarez. Reliever Reed Garrett, properly backing up the play, picked up Baty's throw but Alvarez was between him and Smith, who scored the tying run before a tag could be applied. Two batters later, Michael Conforto singled in the winning run.

Three Keys:

Dodgers Relievers Come Up Big

The Dodgers bullpen, including rookie Jack Dreyer and journeyman Jose Ureña, shut down the hot Mets offense for 5 2/3 innings.

               The Mets jumped on Dodger starter Landon Knack, with 3 solo homers, a first-pitch shot in the 2nd from Pete Alonso, and back-to-back home runs from Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte to lead off the 3rd inning.  Later than inning, a sac fly by Brett Baty extended the Mets lead to 4-0, and it looked like the Mets were going to coast out of LaLa Land. But then, in the fourth, rookie Jack Dreyer, after walking Juan Soto on 4 pitches to load the bases, struck out Alonso and got Jeff McNeil to fly out to end the rally.  He held the Mets scoreless in the 5th and then, in the top of the 6th, after Marte singled, he struck out Soto swinging on a 1-2 slider. 

In came Mets castoff Jose Ureña, who ended a Mets rally by striking out McNeil in a long 9-pitch battle with a 96 mph heater. He then needed only 9 pitches to retire the side in order in the 7th.  He promptly got 2 outs in the 8th on 3 pitches.  After Ureña surrendered a double to Marte, Dodger Manager Dave Roberts could have gone to lefty Alex Vesia to face Soto.  Instead, he chose to walk Soto and have Ureña face Pete Alonso, who promptly singled to right and drove in Marte.  But then Vesia came in to get the 3rd out of the 8th and closer Tanner Scott shut down the Mets in the 9th. 

Failing in the Clutch

  In what is become a recurring theme all season, the Mets got plenty of baserunners, with 11 hits and 7 walks, but scored only 2 runs beyond the 3 solo home runs.   Although Alonso hit a solo homer to lead off the 2nd, the Mets had 2 runners on after that with 1 out in the 2nd, but left them stranded.  Similarly, after Nimmo and Marte solo homers led off the 3rd, the Mets loaded the bases with 1 out, but scored only one more (on a sac fly from Brett Baty).  After blowing opportunities with the bases loaded and one out in the 4th, two runners stranded in the 5th, and 2nd and 3rd with one out in the 6th, it seemed only a matter of time before the Mets blew the lead.

On a Brighter Note: Another Strong Performance from Peterson.

               We all might be getting way ahead of ourselves, but one can’t help thinking about a potential rematch between these two teams in the National League Championship Series in October.  Although the Mets appeared to be punching above their weight class last year, the addition of Juan Soto and gobs of pitching depth appears to have closed the gap between these two great teams.

               It’s fun to think about who would start those games for the Mets.  David Peterson gave the Dodgers lineup, and his own manager, some food for thought for Game 1.  He was brilliant, holding the thunderous Dodger lineup to 3 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 6.  Peterson actually shut out the Dodgers for 6 of his 7 innings, bouncing back from his poor 3rd inning (when he gave up all 3 runs).

               It is rare that any of the Mets starters are permitted to go beyond 6 innings this year, as that seems to be their new organization-wide strategy to keep their starters fresh throughout the long 162-game season, and Peterson is no different. But the bullpen has been taxed recently, and Peterson has given the Mets length twice now in the past two weeks -- Thursday and 12 days ago, when he hurled 7 2/3 innings at Citi Field. Both outings were against the Dodgers.