It didn’t exactly strike me as the best idea for the Mets to play the Rockies at home, fly across the country and then go toe to toe with the Dodgers the next night, but MLB has an unbroken record of not asking me what I think.
That’s what the Mets did, and at least for once it was worth staying up after midnight, with the two clubs linking up for a taut, thoroughly satisfying game that ended up with the forces of good triumphant … albeit by the thinnest of whiskers.
Things got off to an excellent start, as Francisco Lindor hit the second pitch of the game over the fence for a 1-0 lead, made even sweeter by the fact that he connected off Dustin May, whom I’ve never been able to stand. May’s nimbus of red hair and oddly pale face remind me of Pennywise if that ghoul had taken up pitching instead of eating Maine children, and I recoil instinctively at the sight of him. I also dislike his histrionics — not because baseball ought to be dour and cheerless but because starting pitchers ought to know the karmic wheel that lifts you up this inning may roll over you the next.
The Mets led 1-0 and then 2-0 on a Brandon Nimmo double, with a third run denied them when the ball hopped over the fence for a ground-rule double, mandating that Francisco Alvarez be sent back to third. (I’ve never quite made up my mind whether this is a charming anachronism or a stupid rule that ought to be struck.) Meanwhile Paul Blackburn was razor sharp in his 2025 Mets debut, showing off a curve with a lot more bite than I remember from his brief 2024 tenure.
Blackburn departed after five and the Mets were left to figure out how to find 12 outs against the Dodgers’ relentless lineup. Huascar Brazoban was first up and quickly put the lead in jeopardy, giving up a single and a pair of walks and facing October tormenter Tommy Edman with the bases loaded and two out — and on Edman’s bobblehead night, no less. Brazoban got Edman to chase a changeup off the plate, the Mets had survived the first test, and I earnestly suggested Edman use his bobblehead to do something rude.
Next up in the securing of outs was Max Kranick. Balls were dying in the outfield all night, with Mark Vientos left in disbelief after a solidly struck ball barely reached the warning track and Tyrone Taylor looking like he was out there conducting a survey of the warning track, pulling balls out of the air all along his patrol area. (Taylor is more impressive every day, with his lightning-quick first step on balls to the gap turning doubles into long outs and difficult plays into ones that look routine.) But then Shohei Ohtani connected with a hanging curve offered by Kranick, and this one did not die — in fact, it’s probably coming down about now.
Kranick escaped further harm and Ryne Stanek navigated the eighth, with a scary-looking Max Muncy drive proving all trajectory and no oomph. And so the game came down to Edwin Diaz protecting a one-run lead against Edman and the bottom of the order, with Ohtani up fourth.
Edman singled, dismantling the hope that Ohtani might be left a forlorn spectator; with one out Lindor saved the lead by keeping a Hyeseong Kim grounder on the infield, but that brought Ohtani to the plate with the tying run on third and the winning run on second. Home-plate ump Andy Fletcher completely missed the first pitch, calling an obvious strike a ball; two pitches later Ohtani served a fastball down the left-field line, more than deep enough to tie the game but thankfully not deep enough to end it.
Diaz struck out Teoscar Hernandez to keep the game tied, the kind of development one welcomed provided the Mets somehow won, seeing how midnight was in the rearview mirror already. And in the 10th the Mets struck quickly, with an RBI double from Alvarez followed by an RBI single from Lindor. All hail the Franciscans! But the Mets couldn’t bring in a third run, with Vientos looking like he might have hurt a hamstring coming out of the batter’s box, and Jose Castillo was sent out to defend a two-run lead with the ghost runner poised to cut that lead to one.
Castillo looked a bit nervous, because of the situation or the enemy lineup or both, and it was hard to blame him. He walked Freddie Freeman, then surrendered a single to Andy Pages that cut the lead to 4-3, with Freeman on second.
Dave Roberts, strangely, left Muncy in against the lefty despite the three-batter rule ensuring Castillo had to face one more hitter; Muncy was enticed by a slider below the zone and struck out. Roberts then pinch-hit Will Smith for Michael Conforto (who’d already reached the plate) even though the Mets now could change pitchers.
They did, summoning Jose Butto to face Smith. Butto doesn’t always inspire confidence, but he got Smith on another long drive to nowhere, with Freeman moving over to third. But now Edman was up again. Butto’s fourth pitch was a slider that Edman spanked right back up the middle. If it got through Butto it might have found Luisangel Acuna‘s glove and Acuna might have had time to get Edman, but it’s more likely it would have found the outfield grass, with Freeman home and Pages on third and Edman bobbleheads being lofted happily all over Dodger Stadium and then oh boy.
But it didn’t get through Butto. He made a nifty play on it, tossed it to Pete Alonso and the Mets had won and we could all go to bed. Which your chronicler will now do posthaste.
May does suck. While we at it the pants are FAR too tight!
If a ball bounces out of play after landing in fair territory for a ground rule double, I’m not sure how you can change the rules — if it’s a double, you can only award 2 bases to the runner. I’m not sure how the rule can be changed fairly.
Just give umps leeway to place runners in that situation. We all know a two-out double scores the runner from first, even if it’s a slow catcher. If there’s any question, err on being conservative.
Granted, I don’t mind the current rule. It’s a quirk, and I like baseball quirks. But it would seem more like a quirk and less like an injustice if it was saved for non-obvious situations, with the team at bat rewarded for a lucky bounce instead of penalized for an unlucky one.
One out, runner on first, little dunker hops over the wall behind first base? Congrats, that’s second and third. Two out, runner on first, ball shot to the corner? Send the runner on first home.
Not a hill I’d die on, but a question I find interesting.
I see Mauricio has been called up, and yet Jared Young is still here.
Young reminds me of George Costanza working on the Pennske File. No one is sure how he got here and no one is sure exactly what his purpose for being here is.
The game was actually won on the 2nd pitch of the game. Lindor hits a home run, it’s axiomatic that the Mets win. I was concerned, however, that if the Dodgers tied the game in the bottom of the 10th, a pitcher would have been the ghost runner in the top of the 11th, as it didn’t appear that Vientos was capable of taking the assignment, and there were no position players left on the bench.