Ryan Church Blunder
Mets Dumbfounded by Their Mistakes.
His shoulders slumped, his eyes heavy, his goatee likely grayer than it was just four hours earlier, Jerry Manuel emerged from the Mets’ clubhouse late Monday night and spotted a massage table.
“I need to lie down,” Manuel said.
No wonder. The Mets arrived at Dodger Stadium in first place in the National League East. They left, after a 3-2 loss to the Manny Ramirez-less Dodgers in 11 innings, leaving Manuel wondering if he was managing a team sponsored by Chico’s Bail Bonds. The carnage included a season-high five errors — including two in the 11th, which led to the Dodgers’ winning run — one decisive base-running blunder by Ryan Church and countless slack jaws, head shakes and dumbfounded looks in a solemn clubhouse.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Carlos Beltran said.
And neither had anyone else. To be fair, Manuel said he had seen his former charges, the Chicago White Sox, commit five errors, not that he was boasting of that achievement or anything. But no, he had never seen a player completely miss tagging third base on his way home as Church did in the top of the 11th. That gaffe canceled what would have been the go-ahead run, ended the inning and breathed life into the Dodgers. Not that, on this night, they needed any extra help. The five errors were the Mets’ most since they committed six on Sept. 16, 2007, against Philadelphia.
“The guy missed third base, that’s unbelievable,” Manuel said. “I can’t explain why or how or anything, but he actually missed the base. To me, it’s just hard to miss third base. I know there are guys who miss first because they’re looking for the ball, that type of thing, but I don’t remember if I’ve ever seen a guy miss third base in a situation like that.”
Then he clarified. No, he had not. Church, for his part, said he thought he nicked the side of the bag as he rounded third, heading home on Angel Pagan’s gapper to right-center. But the third-base coach Razor Shines did not complain when the Dodgers appealed, and Manuel did not argue the call.
“I just feel terrible because touching the bag is a simple thing to do and I didn’t do it,” Church said.
Making the simple difficult since 1962 — that could be the Mets’ motto. At times this season, the Mets (21-17) have turned that act into an art form, missing cut-off men, failing to slide and running into outs. But they have played better recently, even as injuries have caused two of their stars — Jose Reyes (right calf tendinitis) and Carlos Delgado (right hip surgery) — and a valued utility player, Alex Cora (torn right thumb ligament), to miss time. In their stead, Manuel has been forced to mix and match, starting players at unfamiliar positions because he has little choice.
Which is how it came to pass that Ramon Martinez, who arrived at 6:45 p.m. — 25 minutes before the first pitch — after being recalled from Class AAA Buffalo, was playing shortstop Monday night and committed two errors. And how Pagan was getting his first major-league start in more than a year. And how Jeremy Reed, who now has a total of 16 1/3 innings of major-league experience at the position, came to be playing first base in the 11th inning.
From that post, Reed gazed out toward left-center field as Xavier Paul’s fly ball started to plummet. Pagan and Beltran converged. Beltran said he called the ball, “like, six times,” but Pagan did not move.
“Pagan was still in the middle and I couldn’t see the ball,” Beltran said. “If Pagan would have called that ball, my job is to get out of the way. Basically he stood in the middle and I just couldn’t see the ball.”
The ball dropped between them, and Mark Loretta, who had walked against Brian Stokes to lead off the inning, scooted to third. Paul zipped to second, and the Dodgers had the winning run on third. Not so fast, though. Juan Pierre was walked intentionally, loading the bases, and Rafael Furcal flied to shallow left. One out. The Mets should have — could have — escaped when Orlando Hudson followed by tapping a grounder to Reed.
Reed fielded the ball perfectly. He got into throwing position immediately. However, “looking back on it now, I probably just rushed,” he said.
His throw home sailed wide of the catcher, Ramon Castro, and Loretta scored. Dodgers 3, Mets 2. A premonition of these fill-ins being exposed that Manuel had offered a few hours before Monday’s game had come true.
“I haven’t practiced that,” Reed said. “But I should be able to do that. I pride myself — wherever he sticks me, I can make plays.”
The Mets have not hit a home run in five straight games, which would be an irrelevant piece of trivia if not for the fact that the last two nights have proven that they actually could really have used one. Their situational hitting skills must have played hooky Sunday, skipped the short flight from San Francisco and — even aware that Delgado is out indefinitely — made little effort to arrive in time for Monday’s game.
In 48 hours, Manuel has seen a dramatic shift in the tenor of his team’s offense. In winning the opening three games in San Francisco, the Mets went 19-for-47 with runners in scoring position, slapping singles and lining doubles all over the field. In losing their last two games, the Mets have gone 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position, magnifying what has been a season-long dearth of power. The Mets entered Monday with 26 homers, ahead of only Pittsburgh, Oakland and San Francisco.
“I think you need a little power here and there, I think you need that, but I think it’s dangerous to ask the group that’s not sluggers to be sluggers,” Manuel said. “I think we have to continue to preach the type of baseball that we played in San Francisco, because we have the ability to play that type of game.”
The lone bright spot for the Mets was Tim Redding, who in his debut showed that he could be a capable fifth starter. After giving up two runs in the first, Redding shut down the Dodgers, allowing just two hits over six innings in emerging with a quality start. The Mets evened the score at 2-2 in the eighth, on an infield single by Gary Sheffield. Four Mets relievers combined to hold the Dodgers scoreless until the 11th, when, as Redding said, in beautifully understated fashion, “a couple things didn’t go our way tonight.”
If only it were a couple. Then Manuel may not have needed a rest.
“It was a bad game on our part,” Manuel said. “Very bad.”
Original Source :
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/sports/baseball/19mets.html?em
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