Some recaps go for analysis, others go for trying to capture what it was like to be in the moment. And we’ll do a little of that. But sometimes you just want to record what happened and be amazed.
So: Combine the top of the first and the top of the second of Monday night’s Mets-Padres game, and you saw the Padres put seven consecutive men on base against Nolan McLean [1].
Single. Single. Single. Single. Walk. HBP. Walk. Yes, that checks out. Seven!
That sequence somehow yielded zero runs, but ended with the Padres having the bases loaded and nobody out. Yipes! Which was followed by a fielder’s choice, a sac fly and another single. That sequence yielded exactly one run, and another inning over.
You already know the missing elements. The first inning turned — or rather, didn’t turn — on Carson Benge [2] throwing out runners at home on consecutive plays. Jake Cronenworth [3] was the first victim, thrown out by a good 15 feet trying to score on a blooper by Ty France [4]. Cronenworth tried to go up and over Francisco Alvarez [5]‘s tag and ended up on his face beyond home plate. So third-base coach Bob Henley [6] tried it again four pitches later on a Jackson Merrill [7] single — and watched as Benge unleashed a 103 mph one-hop strike to Alvarez to nail Manny Machado [8]. Per the the Athletic, which has a fun deep dive [9] into the nuts and bolts of the Mets’ outfield defense (it’s free, you’re welcome), it was first time an outfielder threw out runners at home on consecutive plays in 22 years. It was also the first time a Met outfielder had ever nabbed two guys at home in the same inning.
Arrr, what be happenin’ in this here Mets game?
The Mets tallied a couple of runs in the bottom of the first on a Bo Bichette [10] single that just trickled between two plus defenders in Cronenworth and France and a sac fly from Luis Robert Jr. [11] that capped a solid grind of an AB. That left San Diego’s Walker Buehler [12] fuming and gesticulating in the dugout. I think Buehler’s objection was to the injustice of the cosmos and not a specific teammate’s sins, but who knows.
McLean, though, was out of sorts in the second, his mechanics awry and his location amiss. Two walks sandwiched around an HBP left the Mets in the soup, but Luis Rengifo [13] tapped back to McLean, who threw high to Alvarez, eliminating any chance for a 1-2-3 double play but allowing the Mets to force Luis Campusano [14] at home. Fernando Tatis Jr. [15] just missed a grand slam, with a Padre finally reaching home safely to cut the lead to 2-1. Cronenworth then singled, wisely not to Benge this time but to A.J. Ewing [16] in left — who threw out Xander Bogaerts [17] at the plate to end the inning.
So at this point the Padres had made six outs, four of them at home. No Met had touched a live ball except McLean, Alvarez, Benge and Ewing. (OK, I think Jared Young [18] had been involved in a pickoff attempt, but don’t be pedantic.) The Padres were 3 for 4 with runners in scoring position and had tallied one run. Got all that?
(We watched these unlikely events unfold in a restaurant in Boothbay, propping up my phone to show SNY silently and in miniature, and kept getting confused about what was a replay and what was a new plate appearance. Can you blame us?)
Baseball being baseball, of course nothing much happened after that. McLean settled down and the make-it-up-as-you-go Mets bullpen held serve, sparing poor Henley further object lessons in not running on Met outfielders.
The lone bit of analysis I’ll add is to give Alvarez credit above and beyond simply being at the center of a cavalcade of unlikeliness. Plays at home aren’t as easy as we think, even when outfielders’ throws are on target: Catchers have to receive those throws cleanly, know where they are in relation to the plate, spin themselves accordingly, anticipate the runner’s lane without blocking the plate too early, and deal with a large opponent sliding or barreling into their vicinity. A lot can go wrong, particularly when you’re trying to do all that in a hurry, but Alvarez handled it all flawlessly.
As for the rest [19], well, you can’t outguess baseball. Sometimes crazy things happen and all you can do is hang on for the ride.