If it had worked, it would have been risky but brilliant. But the play backfired dreadfully and Robin Ventura was left lying on the infield grass, his head down. If he could have buried it in the sand, he would have.
“It’s not a good feeling,” he said of his sixth-inning error in last night’s 7-1 loss to the Braves. “But you can’t go out there playing scared. You make up your mind to do it and you do it. It’s part of playing and you just adjust from that.”
With one out in the sixth, the Braves were holding on to a 2-0 lead and had the bases loaded. Walt Weiss chopped a ball off the infield grass and Ventura, charging in and to his left, scooped up the ball. He then pirouetted 360 degrees in the air and whipped the ball home to Mike Piazza. It was an instinctive decision, one Ventura insisted he’d make again if he had the chance, but the throw was not even close to being on line. Piazza lunged hopelessly as the ball sailed to the screen behind home plate and two runs scored.
“The ball was in between me and [Mike] Bordick at short,” Ventura explained calmly and patiently after the game. “With the pitcher coming up next, I wanted to get that run for the second out, but it got away.”
When asked, Ventura admitted the grass was a little slippery but insisted “that wasn’t it.” He said he was able to plant his foot and spin, but he just “didn’t hit the guy I was trying to hit,” meaning Piazza. “I was where I wanted to be,” he assured.
“You take chances, that’s what happens when you play the infield,” Ventura added. “I just made an error on that one.”
After the play, Ventura lay on his stomach, the force of his acrobatics leaving him prostrate. He hung his head briefly only to look up and watch the Braves race around second base in front of him. He lifted himself from the ground carefully and seemed to move in slow motion back to his position.
Bobby Valentine did not question Ventura’s decision-making when asked if it was the right play to make.
“If he can get the guy … ” Valentine said with a small smile. “Robin has good judgment usually and a perfect throw might have saved two runs.”
Few would expect the understated Ventura to try such a daring maneuver with the game on the line, yet he did. He insisted he would have gotten the lead run if his throw was on the mark.
Unfortunately, Ventura also remained futile at the plate, going 0-for-3 against Braves starter John Burkett and, worse, flying out to shallow center field against the evil John Rocker in the eighth. Rocker came in to face Ventura after Edgardo Alfonzo and Piazza hit consecutive singles.
Ventura had a patient at-bat against Rocker as the crowd howled after every pitch, but he could do nothing against the fireballing lefty.
The Mets’ best chance to score may have been in the first inning with one out, when Derek Bell reached on an infield single and Alfonzo walked. After Piazza lined a hard, long shot into the right-field corner that was caught by a speedy Brian Jordan, Ventura grounded out weakly to first base.
Ventura is now 10-for-71 (.141) against the Braves for his two-year Met career. He is 4-for-28 (.143) this year.
While Ventura has had a very difficult year, looking out of sync at the plate and less-than-his-sparkling-self at third, he is still one of the most popular Mets.
