After he had dove into first base successfully — both by reaching safely and without injury — Jeff McNeil took off his helmet and yelled into the Mets dugout.
The man called “Squirrel” by his teammates was just being a pest again.
A perfect drag bunt that scored Juan Lagares from third base in the third inning Tuesday night was only the latest feat from McNeil, who turned in a four-hit night in the Mets’ 4-3 walk-off win over the Reds in 10 innings at Citi Field.
“He came in and said, ‘That’s Dirtbag baseball,’ ” manager Mickey Callaway said, referring to McNeil’s alma mater, the Long Beach State Dirtbags.
“That was probably the definition of it right there,” McNeil said. “That’s how I was taught to play the game and that’s how I’m always going to play the game.”
McNeil’s 4-for-5 night sent him into May batting .370 with a .957 OPS in 28 games, trying to further prove that his strong rookie stint last year was no fluke. His four-hit effort was the fifth of his career and he now has 13 multi-hit games this season.
“He looked like Ted Williams out there,” Pete Alonso said.
McNeil nearly won it in the 10th inning, but he hit the ball too hard to drive in J.D. Davis from second base. His single to right field was a bullet, forcing Davis to stop at third with no outs, but it set the table for Alonso to end it on a sacrifice fly.
In the eighth inning, McNeil ripped a double to the right-field corner and came around to score on Michael Conforto’s single — which proved to be the tying run after Jeurys Familia blew the 3-1 lead in the ninth.
But his most unique hit came in the third inning on the drag bunt. McNeil had first tried on a 1-0 count, but it went foul. Callaway saw McNeil staring down at first base after the foul, but first baseman Joey Votto never moved in, so he tried it again. It drew Votto off the bag, forcing pitcher Luis Castillo to cover, but he and the throw did not get there in time to beat McNeil’s dive.
“I saw them align there [Monday] and I told [hitting coach] Chili Davis today, if I get a good opportunity to do it with a guy on third base, I’m going to do it,” McNeil said.
“They defended that as well as they possibly could and he still got a hit,” Callaway said. “He knew that, that’s why he tried it. Unbelievable.”
