After the Mets’ got a quality outing from Jose Quintana and a pair of solo home runs, Carlos Mendoza found himself in position to grab a big win and take three out of four from the San Diego Padres on Sunday.
But with one down in the eighth inning, Jose Butto, who had struggled to find the strike zone consistently since he entered with one out the previous inning, got ahead of the Padres No. 9 but then walked him to put the tying run at the plate.
“He was having a hard time getting ahead,” Mendoza said after the game. “Made pitches, obviously got back into the count and got a huge out on [Luis Arraez in the seventh]… and then then the one out 0-2 ball four to the nine-hole hitter, I thought that was pretty much the at-bat that cost him the game there.”
Edwin Diaz, who last pitched on Wednesday afternoon against Baltimore, had been stirring in the bullpen but was not called upon to secure a five-out save.
“I wasn’t gonna go five outs with Diaz,” Mendoza said about the decision to stick with Butto. “He got the ground ball and then just a walk, so, that was his game there.”
“That’s a hitter that you have to attack,” Butto said, speaking through an interpreter. “Try to throw strikes and attack him in the zone. But when I walked him, you end up paying for it.”
Butto, after falling behind Jurikson Profar in the count 2-0, battled back to even the count at 2-2. But on the sixth pitch, he left a sinker belt-high over the middle of the plate and Profar turned on it for a 390-foot home run to right field, his 21st on the year.
The manager added that he “wasn’t gonna push [Diaz] like that” for five outs and that there is “a lot that goes into” making a decision for the closer to go beyond three outs.
“Especially after he was up twice early, I was pushing him by getting more than one inning. So, we just didn’t get there,” Mendoza said.
Diaz said he “was ready to come in in the eighth,” and sat down after the two-run homer. Phil Maton came in for the final out of the inning to strand a runner, before Mendoza called on Diaz to try and send the game to extra innings.
The right-hander worked hard to get an eight-pitch strikeout to retire the first batter, but he fell behind rookie Jackson Merril in the count 2-0. And when a slider got too much of the plate Merril lined it to right to end the ballgame.
“Down and in against a lefty, put a good swing and got him,” Mendoza said of the walk-off homer.
“I just missed my location,” Diaz said. “I was trying to throw my slider down and in to him and I just left it in the middle.”
The loss after leading by two runs in the eighth stings, but, crucially, the Mets failed to gain ground on the Braves in the race for the final NL wild-card spot after Atlanta lost earlier on Sunday to Washington.
“The biggest takeaway, we play a really good series,” Mendoza said. “That’s a really good team right there that felt like a playoff atmosphere, playoff game.
“… And the fact that we were five outs away from taking three out of four here, but look, proud of the guys. You just gotta turn the page and be ready for a really good series again, another good team in the Diamondbacks coming up.”
Arizona, who has gone 25-8 (.758) since the All-Star break and won six in a row, will be another huge test, but Diaz said the clubhouse is in a “good spot.”
“It’s better to win three out of four,” he said, “but we split the series against a good team, a playoff team and I think we feel good about it.”
J.D. Martinez, who hit the first solo homer of the game, said the loss was a “tough” one, but, “We’ve still got a month left. A lot of crazy stuff happens in September and we’re still in August.”
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