Like 'a bad dream,' Mets' big lead vanishes in 9th

WASHINGTON -- Outside, Washington’s Navy Yard neighborhood was still ringing. Fans, many of whom began dancing and screaming while Kurt Suzuki’s walk-off, three-run home run was still in flight, were slow to leave Nationals Park, slow to leave their Tuesday evening behind. They wanted to relish in the largest ninth-inning comeback in franchise history.

Inside the cinderblock walls of the visiting clubhouse, there was only quiet. Players dressed silently, speaking in hushed tones. They offered notes of regret after an 11-10 loss that Jeff McNeil referred to as “possibly the toughest one of the season.” They expressed confusion and bewilderment after losing a game that they led handily only moments earlier.

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Until Edwin Díaz served up Suzuki’s home run, teams that held leads of at least six runs in the bottom of the ninth this season were 274-0, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Now, they are 274-1.

“When I came in here, I didn’t really know what just happened,” Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo said. “It kind of just seemed like a bad dream. That’s hard to do even in a Little League game I feel like, to come back from seven runs down in the bottom of the ninth against guys throwing 99 miles an hour.”

For the Mets, it was a recurring bad dream that has become a theme of their season. Buoyed by a relentless offensive showing and a good-enough version of Jacob deGrom, the Mets took a 10-4 lead into the ninth. Paul Sewald then allowed hits to four of the first five batters he faced, prompting Mets manager Mickey Callaway to bring Luis Avilan and then Edwin Diaz into the game.

Neither reliever recorded an out. Diaz, the Mets’ embattled part-time closer, allowed a pinch-hit, two-run double to Ryan Zimmerman and then the walk-off homer to Suzuki. It marked the first time in franchise history the Mets lost a lead of at least six runs in the ninth inning or later.

“Let’s be honest, I don’t think we thought it was going to happen either,” Zimmerman said. “A lot of us have been around baseball for a long time. Once it starts going, the pressure shifts obviously squarely on their shoulders. Stuff like that is not supposed to happen.”

That it did offered another shot of adversity for the Mets, who now trail the Cubs by five games for the National League’s final Wild Card spot. With 24 games to play, they understand their window to change the narrative is closing.

“Level of shock? I think it’s more just everybody’s pretty disappointed,” deGrom said. “We let one get away there. We felt like we had it.”

Decisions, decisions

Sewald’s appearance was a product of several factors leading up to the ninth. The first was deGrom, who earned a right to continue after finishing the seventh inning at only 95 pitches. That decision backfired, however, when Anthony Rendon reached base on a soft ground ball and Juan Soto clubbed a two-run homer. At that point, Callaway turned to his best and most consistent reliever, Seth Lugo, who retired the next three batters in order.

The initial plan was for Lugo to record the final six outs. But when the Mets scored five runs in the top of the ninth, increasing their odds to win the game to 99.3 percent, according to Fangraphs data, it no longer seemed necessary to push him. The Mets have been careful all season with Lugo, who is frequently unavailable the day after his outings, and is always unavailable after throwing multiple innings.

The problem is that outside of Lugo, none of Callaway’s relievers have proven consistently trustworthy. Sewald, who spent most of this season at Triple-A Syracuse, said he “made some good pitches that they got hits on, and made a couple bad pitches that they got hits on, too.” When neither Sewald nor Avilan could contain Washington’s rally, Callaway had little choice but to turn to Diaz, whose five-month nightmare continued.

“There’s no excuse”

Largely because his roles have become more varied since the All-Star break, Diaz said he was unsurprised Callaway asked him to begin warming in the ninth inning of what was once a blowout. The Mets, who once established extremely rigid rules for Diaz’s usage, have loosened those restrictions immensely. Diaz warmed multiple times before entering in a non-save situation in Monday’s Mets victory, then multiple times again on Tuesday before entering.

That the Nationals managed to crack him for two extra-base hits was bewildering to Callaway, who called Diaz “electric.” Indeed, the Nationals’ hits off him came on 99- and 100-mph fastballs, but both leaked over the plate after leaving his hand on trajectories toward the outside corner.

“He was waiting on that pitch and he hit it out,” Diaz said of Suzuki’s homer.

At this point in the season, there is little time left for Diaz to clean up the back of his baseball card. In 58 appearances, Diaz has seven losses, six blown saves and a 5.65 ERA. He is under team control for three more seasons. Whether Diaz will be the Mets’ closer next Opening Day is a matter the club will have to discuss this offseason, at a time when they can look more objectively at what happened in 2019.