The Mets Lose A Laugher

Part of the magic of baseball, or perhaps of any great sport, is that anything can happen. No two games are the same. The only thing one can expect is the unexpected. And so it was Monday night, as the Mets made mind-boggling error after mind-boggling error in their 11-inning loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Mets starter Tim Redding, just called up from triple-AAA Buffalo, got off to a bad start Monday night as he gave up two runs in the bottom of the first.

The Mets, however, would get one of those runs back in the top of the second on a Ramon Martinez RBI groundout, driving in David Wright, who had doubled to lead off the inning. Meanwhile, Redding found a groove, and ended up going six innings, giving up just the two runs on two hits and four walks.

Yet, for the first several innings of the ballgame, Dodgers starter Randy Wolf stymied what had once seemed a potent Mets offense. In fact, the Mets were still down 2 – 1 when Angel Pagan led off the top of the eighth with a double to deep left field. After Luis Castillo and Carlos Beltran failed to plate the runner, Gary Sheffield hit a little squibber that somehow managed to find the outfield grass, and even more miracously, allowed Pagan to score the game-tying run.

But this was not the Mets night out in the field. The Mets had already made one error (a Martinez fielding error) as the game headed into the later innings. Then, things really started to go sour. In the eighth, Martinez made a throwing error that nearly cost the Mets a run. In the ninth, Sean Green made a horrible throw to first on a ground ball, that put Jean Pierre on third and nearly let him score.

But it wasn’t until the 11th when the mental errors really began to kill the Mets. In the top of the 11th, it appeared that the Mets had taken the lead when Ryan Church singled to left, and Angel Pagan then hit a ball into deep right field. Church came in to score. But wait, he didn’t score because he had never touched third base. The Dodgers touched third base. Three outs. Inning over. Still a tie game.

Then, in the bottom of the 11th, Brian Stokes made his only real mistake of the ball game, walking Mark Loretta to lead off the inning. Then, the next batter, Xavier Paul, hit a ball to left-center field that should’ve been caught but wasn’t due to poor communication between left-fielder Angel Pagan and center-fielder Carlos Beltran. After an intentional walk, the Mets brought the infield and outfield in, literally bringing Carlos Beltran in to play short center field.

Stokes managed to record the first out of the inning on a short fly ball, and then got Orlando Hudson to hit a sharp grounder to first that should’ve at least led to a force out at home if not an inning-ending double play, except Jeremy Reed in trying to get the out at home, threw the ball past the catcher. Ball game over. The Dodgers win, or more accurately, the Mets lose.

It was almost laughable. Church forgetting to touch third. And then, five fielding errors, each one sillier than the last. Most were rookie mistakes. Ramon Martinez, who made two errors, is just up from the minors. Angel Pagan, in left field, also just got back to the majors, and was probably too nervous to hear Beltran calling him off. And then Jeremy Reed, not used to playing first base, got too caught up in the situation, too caught up in trying to make that spectacular double play, and ended up throwing the entire game away.

On the bright side, the bullpen was brilliant for the Mets. Bobby Parnell pitched a scoreless seventh, J.J. Putz worked around Martinez’s second error and a James Loney single to pitch a scoreless eighth. Sean Green was shaky, but managed to overcome his own error and general wildness to pitch a scoreless ninth.

And then what can you say about Brian Stokes? He was fantastic on Monday night. He pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the tenth, and did his best to work through adversity in the eleventh. He made one mistake. The leadoff walk, but after that was perfect. Forcing a fly ball that should’ve been caught. Then, one batter later, getting Rafael Furcal to hit a short fly to left, too short to score the run, with the bases loaded and none out. Then, getting a grounder to Jeremy Reed, what should’ve been a double play ball. Should’ve, would’ve, could’ve. The Mets lost by a score of 3 to 2.

Now, the Mets and Phillies are tied for first. The Braves are two and a half back. The Marlins are three back.