PITTSBURGH — The Mets hit rock bottom. Then somehow, with their manager in his office watching eight innings of the game from a television monitor, they climbed out.
The Amazin’s chipped away after a disastrous outing from Taijuan Walker — who lasted long enough to face nine batters and make just one out before getting pulled in the first inning — that put them in a six-run hole. Travis Blankenhorn brought the club within two runs with a three-run rocket, his first career home run. Then Michael Conforto finally provided the go-ahead bomb with a two-run home run in the ninth inning that led to the Mets’ 7-6 win over the Pirates on Sunday.
Trevor May recorded the save over closer Edwin Diaz, who’s blown his last two save opportunities – both against the Pirates. Five Mets relievers combined to put up 8.2 scoreless innings after Walker left in the first. Drew Smith hurled 2.2 shutout frames and Aaron Loup escaped a bases-loaded jam of his own making in the sixth by striking out three straight batters.
“I told Tai after he came out of the game and before I made it down to the bullpen that we were going to pick him up, not to worry about it,” said Loup, who also told players on the bench to have fun instead of being miserable. “It was a hell of a comeback by the offense.”
The circus started in the first inning, when the bases were loaded with Pirates as Walker struggled to find the strike zone. Walker had already permitted three runs to score by failing to retire four of his first five batters faced. Then one of the poorest plays you’ll see the Mets make this year — and maybe for several seasons to come — enraged Luis Rojas to the point of ejection and nearly led to the Amazin’s getting swept by the second-worst team in the National League.
Pirates shortstop Kevin Newman hit a dribbler down the third-base line that trickled toward the white chalk to remain fair. But Walker flicked the ball with his glove toward the Pirates dugout. The ball bounced off the dugout railing and landed on the dirt, in play, just as home-plate umpire Jeremy Riggs made the correct call that Newman’s single was fair. Right away, third-base coach Joey Cora, the brother of Alex, waved all three of his runners home. The Pirates surged to a 6-0 lead.
Walker couldn’t believe it. Instead of retrieving the ball he just threw away, Walker argued with Riggs. Catcher Tomas Nido stood nearby watching. For several moments, long enough for the bases to clear and all three runners to sprint home, the Mets did nothing. By the time Walker ran and picked up the ball, three runs scored and Rojas was on the field with steam billowing out of his ears.
“I got friends and family watching the game and sending me still shots. It was close,” said Walker, who indicated he still believes the ball was foul. “He made the call. There’s really nothing we can do about it now.”
His manager certainly agreed with him. “I think he just got everyone fired up in the dugout,” Walker said.
In the pressure cooker that is managing a baseball team in the New York market, Rojas had kept his cool and calm demeanor for the majority of his two seasons on the job. Then, in his 150th game at the helm, Rojas utterly lost it. He stormed out of the dugout, got in Riggs’ face and barked at him from multiple angles. Riggs turned away from Rojas, but it didn’t matter to the Mets skipper. He was incensed.
Rojas followed him around the field – already ejected at this point – and continued to shout at him. Multiple Mets coaches tried to get between Rojas and Riggs, to little success, before Rojas finally walked away, still seething with rage, and disappeared into the Mets tunnel. Mets bench coach Dave Jauss managed the remainder of the game, but Rojas’ reaction was felt and respected by his players for the last 26 outs.
Rojas, like Walker, said after the game he still believes the ball was foul. He downplayed whether his animated argument with Riggs led to the comeback victory from the Mets and said the purpose of his dispute with Riggs was to get the call reversed. Rojas, who added he’s looking forward to staying in the game on Monday, said his players and coaches razzed him about his memorable ejection.
“A lot of them,” Rojas said of the team poking fun at him. “There’s some things they say to me I did that I don’t remember doing. I know I was very hot at the moment. I was upset … But yeah, they’re all bringing it up to me, the coaches, the players. Some of them are probably going to keep going. We’re all having fun because the game was won.”
As Conforto said, the Mets (48-42) will enjoy a “happy flight” to Cincinnati thanks to the bullpen’s dominant performance and the offense clawing back from a 6-0 deficit. The team’s mood, and its first place standing, would’ve dropped had the last-place Bucs (36-57) swept the Amazin’s. The Mets will open a three-game series against the Reds on Monday, behind starter Jerad Eickhoff, hoping for more of the same resiliency in the face of dire adversity.
Jacob deGrom is out for an unknown amount of time with a tight forearm injury. Eickhoff will try to maintain the Mets’ two-game lead over the Phillies in the NL East. Then, the Mets still must decide on a starter for Tuesday. Though Sunday’s win was a big one, the road ahead remains rocky.