{"id":59127,"date":"2023-07-01T11:00:43","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T15:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=59127"},"modified":"2023-06-30T22:30:48","modified_gmt":"2023-07-01T02:30:48","slug":"8th-inning-2023-mets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/07\/01\/8th-inning-2023-mets\/","title":{"rendered":"How an 8th Inning in Philadelphia Defined the 2023 Mets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rock bottom. No, not The Rock’s pro wrestling finishing move. That actually won him a lot of championships and helped him become one of the biggest stars in wrestling and eventually Hollywood. In sports, rock bottom is the absolute pits. The worst of the worst. The feeling where you don’t think a season can’t get any lower than it’s been, but it does. For the 2023 New York Mets<\/a>, their rock bottom happened on a Sunday afternoon rubber game against the Philadelphia Phillies<\/a>. The Mets have played sloppy and inconsistent baseball for most of the season. The sloppiness is what really has surprised many in the organization, and it was on full display by the Mets in the 8th inning in Philadelphia.<\/p>\r\n

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How an 8th Inning in Philadelphia Defined the 2023 New York Mets<\/h2>\r\n

For further context, the Mets owned the Phillies last year, posting a 14-5 record against them. This includes throwing a no-hitter<\/a> and having two incredible comebacks at Citizens Bank Park. In those games, the Phillies were the ones playing sloppy baseball. Yet, it was the Phillies who would end up in the World Series while the Mets got bounced out in the Wild Card series. Sports can work that way sometimes. This game saw both starting pitchers, the Mets’ Carlos Carrasco and the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler, struggle. New York jumped out to a 6-3 lead with home runs by Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso leading the way. Carrasco was out after four innings of work and the Mets bullpen had to take over. They were asked to once again take over a game where their starter couldn’t go more than five innings.<\/p>\r\n

Mets 8th Inning Opens with a Pair of Walks<\/h3>\r\n

New York’s bullpen got off to a nice start in their first three innings of work. Combined, Dominic Leone and Grant Hartwig pitched three scoreless frames and preserved the Mets’ lead. Then the bottom 0f the 8th came along. Lefty Josh Walker, who has been reliable since getting the call to the big leagues, relieved Hartwig and didn’t get anybody out. That included walking two left-handed batters, Bryce Harper and Bryson Stott. In the middle of those two hitters, J.T. Realmuto hit a single into left field. Remember that hit. The bases were loaded with nobody out and manager Buck Showalter made a pitching change to right-hander Jeff Brigham.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

More Bad Mistakes Prove Costly<\/h3>\r\n

Brigham was asked to protect a three-run lead with the bases now loaded and no outs recorded. He almost got the job done. As a matter of fact, he probably should have. However, in a season where the Mets have made way too many mistakes, the team’s coveted rookie third baseman made a big blunder. Alec Bohm grounded into what should’ve been an easy double play ball, but Baty didn’t have a grip on the ball, hesitated, and threw a poor pass to Jeff McNeil. Baty took responsibility after the game.<\/p>\r\n

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Brett Baty comments on the error he made during today’s game:

“I just couldn’t get it out of my glove. There really is no excuse, that play needs to be made 10\/10 times. It cost us the game, cost us the series, and it cost us a lot of momentum we had coming in from yesterday” pic.twitter.com\/qoJ9W53yoI<\/a><\/p>\r\n\u2014 SNY (@SNYtv) June 25, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote>\r\n