Pulling Walker backfires as Mets fall to Giants

NEW YORK -- Taijuan Walker stalked off the Citi Field pitcher’s mound on Wednesday, muttering to himself, clearly displeased with his manager’s decision to remove him. Walker had committed no obvious transgressions, allowing the first two men in the seventh to reach base on a fielding error and a bloop single. He had thrown merely 74 pitches.

Manager Luis Rojas removed him anyway, with barely enough time to return to the dugout before Aaron Loup allowed a first-pitch, two-run, go-ahead double to Brandon Crawford. As a rare Mets lead turned into what became a 3-2 loss, Walker slammed down his fist in frustration on the other side of the dugout. In the stands, pockets of fans began jeering, calling for Rojas’ job.

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It was an ugly scene punctuating all that’s gone wrong for the Mets since the start of August, which they entered with a four-game NL East lead. Since that time, the Mets have lost 17 of 23 to fall seven games out of first, including 10 of 12 to the Giants and Dodgers. Wednesday offered just the latest peccadillo for a team that hit into five double plays (getting doubled off bases twice), saw multiple defensive plays go awry and listened as boos rained down upon multiple members of the roster.

“We definitely hear it,” Loup said. “You try to drown it out and not pay attention to it the best you can, but we definitely hear it. It makes it tough. Especially, we’ve been struggling and not playing well, and then when you come home and you basically kind of get booed off the field, it definitely doesn’t make it any easier.”

The moment that galvanized Citi Field’s passion unfolded in the top of the seventh. Entering the inning, Walker had allowed just one hit, one walk and one run, on a Kris Bryant homer. He had thrown 68 pitches and still appeared to be cruising, inducing a 65 mph tapper from Bryant that went for an error by Jonathan Villar and a 78 mph floater that Michael Conforto and Jeff McNeil couldn’t reach.

Even so, in a one-run game, Rojas would not let Walker try to find his way out of the jam. To the contrary, Rojas said the way in which Walker allowed the runners had no bearing on the decision; the skipper had already decided that if Crawford came to bat with two men on base, the left-handed Loup would face him regardless of any other factors.

“I was pretty surprised,” Walker said. “I still felt good and confident in my pitches. I felt like I was still a ground ball away from getting a double play … just a pitch away from getting out of it.”

Moments later, Loup gave up his first extra-base hit to a lefty hitter all season as fans at Citi began chanting “Fire Rojas.”

Asked about the chants afterward, Rojas said he had “no reaction.”

“The fans are always shouting for all the guys, different things,” he continued. “You’re always hearing it, but there’s no reaction. They can say whatever. This is baseball. We have a very passionate fan base, and they’re going to do those things. That’s just OK. It’s part of the game. It’s part of baseball here in New York, how passionate our fans are. I have nothing to say about it.”

At that point, Rojas still had a game to try to win -- an objective that the Giants aided with multiple defensive misplays in the ninth. Those allowed the Mets to load the bases with two outs, but Pete Alonso hit a soft liner to second to end things against San Francisco closer Jake McGee.

“You know, it’s tough,” Walker said, echoing the sentiments of his teammates. “We’re all frustrated.”

That does not, however, mean the front office will indulge the impulses of fans at Citi Field, despite the fact that Rojas’ contract will expire after this season. Hired by the Mets’ previous front-office and ownership regimes, Rojas stayed in his role under new owner Steve Cohen and team president Sandy Alderson in part because he was a well-liked, long-time organizational lieutenant with whom Alderson had a previous relationship.

With Wednesday’s loss, Rojas’ record fell to 87-99 over his first two seasons as manager. How that affects his future is difficult to predict, given Cohen’s lack of history as an owner. All that’s clear is that Cohen burns to win, and the Mets have struggled to do so throughout his brief tenure.

Answers to those questions may not surface for some time. Asked this week about his own job status and that of Rojas, acting general manager Zack Scott replied: “That’s not what we’re focused on. We’re just focused on trying to get on a run here and get back in this thing.”