The scoreboard high above left field taunted them all night. It teased a dugout full of baseball players whose bats scratched out only one run over most of two days. It sneered at Sean Manaea, brilliant once again across seven innings, but on the hook for a loss when it was 1-0 for so long.
“I was watching,” Manaea admitted of the scoreboard. “I definitely was.”
The Dodgers were up in Atlanta, 1-0. They were up 2-0, then 3-0, then 5-0. We’re inside of two weeks left in the season, and the Dodgers were trying to lend the Mets a hand. That’s part of a playoff chase, sure: sometimes you have to rely on the kindness of strangers. But eventually you have to help yourself, too.
Inning after inning, the Mets couldn’t help themselves.
Inning after inning, a Washington Nationals right-hander named Jake Irvin plowed his way through the Mets lineup, same as he had on the Fourth of July, when he’d thrown eight goose eggs at them and won 1-0 when the man playing right field for the Mets now, Jesse Winker, hit a homer off long-departed pitcher Adrian Houser.
“We didn’t hit too many hard balls against him,” said Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, and there were 21,694 people in the stands who could back that up as they groaned uneasily; the scoreboard was goading them, too, most of all. The Mets had an opportunity. They just needed to buy a run, and then another.
Mendoza: “We have good players on this team. They know how to find a way.”
They hadn’t found a way Saturday or Sunday in Philadelphia, losing a pair of excruciating games. There hadn’t been a lot of help, either. The Braves played the Dodgers to a draw across four games. In Phoenix, Brewers manager Pat Murphy opted against using his lights-out closer, Devin Williams, with a two-run 10th inning lead on Sunday.
Williams looked furious as he watched from the bullpen.
That properly mimicked Mets fans who might’ve angrily snuck a peek at the bottom of the 10th, as the Diamondbacks strung together four singles and a hit batsman, won the game 11-10.
Now the Dodgers were up 6-0. And then it was 9-0.
It was still 1-0, Nats, at Citi Field. Then Tyrone Taylor doubled into the corner leading off the eighth. He was standing on third with one out when Starling Marte, pinch hitting, grounded weakly to short. You could almost hear the Dodgers telepathically sending a message: “We’re trying to do you a solid here, fellas.”
Citi groaned.
But here’s the thing about these Mets: even when they struggle, they’ve come to learn to do little things very well, everyone, and that keeps them close most nights. Eddy Alvarez, a Met for about 15 minutes (who is probably tied with Lee Mazzilli as the best speed-skater in team history) made two enormous plays, one a skillful tag, one a splendid flip from his glove.
Luisangel Acuna, who’s been here about 10 minutes, fielded his position flawlessly as a late-inning sub, the last chance when a nervous bobble would’ve cost the go-ahead run.
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But nobody embodies this esprit de corps more than Jose Iglesias, who spent most of his spring enjoying the temperate climes of Syracuse, who put the ball in play in the eighth inning and motored down the baseline to tie the score. It was Iglesias who made a remarkably intelligent decision to catch a wayward throw from Alvarez in the ninth.
And it was Iglesias standing on deck in the 10th, when Marte was given a chance to prove what Bob Murphy always insisted, that baseball is a game of redeeming features. This time he laced one down the line into left. Harrison Bader scored. The Mets won, 2-1. The Dodgers won, 9-0. The Mets would nudge a game ahead of the Braves, 12 games to go.
They got hopeful news about Francisco Lindor earlier in the day, and it’s possible he’ll be back in time for the 10-game obstacle course through the Phillies, Braves and Brewers that’ll end the season. For now, he leads from the bench. For now, they need the supporting players to answer. Monday it was Marte, Acuna, Iglesias, Manaea. Maybe Tuesday it’ll be Mark Vientos, Pete Alonso, J.D. Martinez, climbing out of the weeds.
“It’s important for the rest of us to carry the load,” Marte said after doing his share. “That’s what we need to do, especially now.”
Especially now. The scoreboard will be ready to go Tuesday night by first pitch, 7:10. The Braves will probably already be in the second inning by then in Cincinnati. It’ll all be there, high above left field, taunting, teasing, goading. Then it’ll be the Mets’ turn. That’s when the real fun — and the real agony — begins.
