Classic is kid stuff for Mets
Jason Vargas never talks to fans from the ondeck circle, just like major league teams never line up after a game and shake hands.
Put a big league game in a tiny park full of 11- and 12-year-olds, though, and those kinds of customs get tossed aside.
Amed Rosario had three hits and drove in three runs, and the New York Mets went from cheering on players in the Little League World Series to impressing the youngsters in an 8-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday night.
Jeff McNeil added a two-run single to back Vargas (3-8) as the Mets claimed the second Little League Classic and prevented the Phillies from moving into first place in the NL East. Philadelphia dropped into a three-way tie for the top NL wild card.
“I had some cool interactions
with the kids,” Vargas said of his in-game dialogue. “They were having a great time.”
Carlos Santana hit a tworun homer for the Phillies, but Nick Pivetta (7-10) allowed six runs in 3 2/3 innings in Philadelphia’s seventh loss in 11 games.
After the final out, players lined up across the diamond for a postgame tradition for kids that’s never seen in the majors.
“I thought the handshaking gesture was huge,” Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said. “It’s something I experienced for the first time since I was in Little League.”
Players and families from the 16 teams competing in the nearby LLWS packed into 2,500-seat Bowman Field, the 92-year-old home of the Phillies’ Class A affiliate in the New York-Penn League.
And the spotlight shined on New York’s Todd Frazier and Michael Conforto and Philadelphia’s Scott Kingery, who are among 54 players who reached the majors after playing in the LLWS.
“Pretty surreal because I walked into the dugout and they were getting ready to play a game and one of them was like, ‘Whoa, that’s Scott Kingery!”’ said the rookie infielder, who doubled in the fifth. “That’s crazy, because I remember when I was sitting in that dugout.”
Frazier, who sparked a four-run second with a leadoff single, helped Toms River, New Jersey, win the 1998 title when he led off the game with a home run and struck out the final batter.
“It’s been a long day, but well worth it,” said Frazier, who hadn’t been back to Williamsport since 1999. “I kept telling these kids, let it all sink in.”
The Mets built a 6-0 lead in the fourth to take the five-game series and improve to 8-5 against the Phillies, who dropped a half-game behind divisionleading Atlanta.