Juan Lagares was ready from the start. But he got REALLY ready in the sixth. You know, just in case. And in case came in the eighth inning.
And Lagares delivered, sending a two-run, pinch-hit double to right giving the Mets the lead they never lost in an 11-5 win over the Nationals at Citi Field that avoided a three-game sweep.
“I always say even if I don’t start the game I have to be ready because I never know when I have to come into the game in a situation like that,” said Lagares who now is hitting .407 as a part-timer. “After the sixth inning, I’m ready for a situation like that.”
And that was just part, a huge part, of the Mets’ nine-run rally.
“We never give up,” Lagares said.
“He’s confident and he’s waiting for his pitch,” manager Mickey Callaway said of Lagares. “He’s not chasing pitches out of the zone and he’s getting his pitch and he’s not missing it. He’s doing a fantastic job. I think that confidence is huge and he definitely has a lot of it right now.”
And while Lagares came through, Jose Reyes again flopped as a pinch hitter, bouncing out in the seventh. Reyes is now 0-of-18 on the season.
History repeated itself in the first inning. For the Mets, it was virtually rare history.
Steve Matz threw over to first base, catching the Nationals’ Moises Sierra off base. Sierra broke for second and was thrown out by first baseman Adrian Gonzalez to shortstop Amed Rosario. So that was the second caught stealing turned in by the Mets this season. And the first one went the same way.
On April 8, in the bottom of the eighth, reliever Jerry Blevins entered with two outs and caught Anthony Rendon off first. Gonzalez to Rosario got Rendon. Those are the only times the Mets have thrown out a runner stealing. Opponents now are 21-of-23 in stolen-base attempts against the Mets. The 21 steals are seven more than the total allowed by the White Sox, MLB’s second most victimized team. Suffice to say controlling the running game is an issue for the Mets.
“Sometimes they steal them on the pitchers, sometimes they steal them on the catcher,” Callaway said before Wednesday’s game, one night after the Nationals stole three bases, making it five-of-five in the first two games of the series.
“[Tuesday] night we did a really good job of controlling the runner at first,” Callaway said. “If you watch that Trea Turner one, we had him thrown out, we just didn’t get the throw where we needed to.”
Good throws tend to help in such matters.
“[Reliever Robert] Gsellman did a great job of [throwing] over a couple times, he held the ball a long time on that one,” Callaway said. “It was a 1.25 [seconds] to home which is very, very quick. We just didn’t make the throw.”
Somewhat lost in Tuesday’s 5-2 defeat was the debut of Gerson Bautista who threw a scoreless ninth, allowing one hit and later a one-out walk to Bryce Harper.
“I wasn’t [nervous] because it’s the same thing wherever I go. It’s the same ball. Here Double-A, Triple-A. Same ball,” said Bautista, the 100-mph righty who was summoned from Double-A Binghamton earlier Tuesday.
Bautista felt it was “pretty cool” that he got to pitch the same day he was called up “because I’m on their mind and honestly I don’t have to feel pressure because I didn’t have to wait too much to start doing my job.”
And he didn’t have to wait for trouble. Turner doubled leading off.
“I didn’t worry much about that,” he said. “Just had to focus on getting the next batters and get three outs in the inning.”
The Mets announced Travis d’Arnaud underwent successful Tommy John surgery Tuesday at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan to repair a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. D’Arnaud will rest and recover in New York after the surgery by Dr. David Altchek.
Reliever Anthony Swarzak will remain in New York to recover from a left oblique strain. The original plan had him going to Florida but Callaway said the doctors “just decided it would be better for him to continue to get treatment instead of going ahead and throwing, so he’s going to stay here for a few more days.”
Reliever Paul Sewald was terrific in three innings, striking out five and giving up one run, thanks to a liner that became a misplayed triple.
“I’m throwing strikes,” Sewald said. “I’ve come into a couple games where we’re down trying to eat innings and the important thing was throwing strikes. I can’t eat three innings if I’m out there throwing 25 pitches an inning.”
