N.Y.’S rebound vs. L.A. was big
Mets managed to get a split with the Dodgers to start trip
The weekend didn’t quite go the way the New York Mets imagined it would to open their 11-day, 10-game tour of Southern California, but their rules of engagement became pretty clear: Leave the hotel doors open, the television on and make sure Pete Alonso keeps swinging.
After spotting the Los Angeles Dodgers the first two games of a four-game set, the Mets stormed back Saturday and Sunday to earn a split. They slipped past the Dodgers’ two best starting pitchers, ambushing Walker Buehler and outlasting Julio Urías. Despite still being without their own best starters, the Mets nevertheless headed for their next stop on the trip, San Diego, sporting the National League’s best record at 37-19.
“Last man standing, I guess. I don’t know,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said, before adding of the Dodgers: “They’re a really good team. I’m really proud of our guys battling back these last two days.”
Third baseman Eduardo Escobar, whose 10-pitch struggle with Brusdar Graterol produced an eighth inning sacrifice fly in Sunday’s 5-4, 10-inning thriller, said the four games “felt like a playoff atmosphere.” Designated hitter J.D. Davis, who doubled home the go-ahead run in the 10th, said the weekend shows “we’re just as good as they are.”
Growing evidence would suggest he is correct.
With the team’s aces, Jacob degrom (stress reaction, right shoulder) and Max Scherzer (oblique), back home on the mend, the Mets narrowly avoided what would have been another disastrous injury when Francisco Lindor, the team’s All-star shortstop, checked into his hotel suite upon the Mets’ arrival in Los Angeles and promptly slammed his right middle finger in a door. He wound up with a fracture in the tip of the finger, sat out Thursday night’s series opener and considered himself fortunate to be back in the lineup the next day.
The pain was so severe in the moment, Lindor said, that he jogged around his suite for a few minutes hoping it would calm down. He was thankful that the fingernail remained intact and the door didn’t catch any more of his finger.
“I feel like if it was somewhere higher, it would probably be surgery or something,” he said.
The Mets were blanked 2-0 in his absence on Thursday, then lost, 6-1, in his return on Friday night. And both Lindor and Showalter said they knew exactly what was coming that night: Mookie Betts opened the bottom of the first inning with a hard ground ball to Lindor, whose throwing was tested right away.
“I haven’t anticipated a ground ball this much in years,” Lindor said afterward through a sparkling — and relieved — smile. “I knew that first one was coming to me.”