Defensive miscues, play at plate sink Crew

NEW YORK -- The Mets and Brewers found themselves in a bullpen game on Thursday night at Citi Field after both team’s starters left with injuries. But one costly mistake in the eighth let the Mets’ winning run score as the Brewers fell 5-4.

Rowdy Tellez is often considered one of the better defensive first basemen in baseball. But one would never think that based solely on his eighth-inning gaffe.

With the game tied at four, J.D. Davis led off the inning with a single. Luis Guillorme hit a routine ground ball to Tellez, who tried to throw to second for the force play, but the throw landed in the outfield putting runners on first and third with no outs.

“I made the play. I never second guess my decision,” Tellez said. “Could I have done better? Yeah. Should I have made an accurate throw? But I’ll never say I should do anything different.

“That’s a play I make 1,000 out of 1,000 times. I got lazy and I cost my team the win. That’s something I have to roll with. When you play this game, you play 162 [games] and you play as hard as you can.”

Starling Marte then replaced Davis as a pinch-runner. After Tomás Nido struck out, Nick Plummer hit a ground ball to Tellez. Instead of holding Marte at third, Tellez threw the ball to second to try for a double play, but shortstop Willy Adames couldn’t nab Plummer at first, allowing Marte to score the go-ahead run.

“That's another play I wouldn’t change either,” Tellez said. “I looked at [Marte] and he didn’t run. I threw to second. Could we have gone to first [instead]? Yeah, we probably could have. But we got the out. It’s one of those things, too, I have to wear. When it’s all said and done, that should have never been a play in the game anyway due to my error [earlier in the inning].”

The Brewers had a chance to tie the game in the top of the ninth inning off Mets closer Edwin Díaz. With a runner on first, Tyrone Taylor blooped a ball down the right-field line. Plummer was slow retrieving the ball that had rolled into foul territory, so third-base coach Jason Lane decided to send Hunter Renfroe home. Plummer collected the ball and quickly threw to the cutoff man, first baseman Pete Alonso. Alonso’s throw home was on target, and Renfroe was out at the plate. Christian Yelich then struck out to end the game.

Asked if Lane made the right decision to send Renfroe home, Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “I absolutely think it was the right call. [Díaz] is not easy to get hits against. He strikes out almost 50 percent of the hitters [he faces].

“The result of Yelich’s at-bat is the reason, it’s the right send. The arm in right field is something you have to challenge. By the throw [Plummer] made to Alonso, that’s why you challenge it. Alonso made a good play. It’s a bang-bang play. If either of those two things don’t go right, we got a run.”

Alonso said he understood why Renfroe broke for home to score the tying run.

“Renfroe, he’s a really good baserunner,” Alonso said. “He was hauling around the bases. At that point, you’ve got to do whatever you can to tie the game. The Brewers in general are a really aggressive baserunning team. Going into the series knowing that, and the way that he was rounding the bases, you could just tell that he wanted it. Everyone’s yelling, ‘Home! Home! Home!’ So it was easy to make a decision to throw home.”