Mets’ closer hurts knee celebrating win by Puerto Rico in WBC

New York Mets star closer Edwin Díaz is out for the season after he injured his right knee celebrating a win Wednesday night that advanced Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic and eliminated the Dominican Republic.

Díaz was taken off the field in a wheelchair in Miami soon after pitching a perfect ninth inning to close out Puerto Rico’s 5-2 win over the Dominicans.

On Thursday, Diaz underwent surgery to repair a right patellar tendon tear, Mets general manager Billy Eppler announced.

Eppler added that Diaz suffered a “full thickness” tear and that a more specific timeline will be known after the surgery, but the general timetable is around eight months before a return to action. That would rule Díaz out for the 2023 season.

Top candidates to replace

Diaz in the ninth inning for the Mets are veterans David Robertson or Adam Ottavino.

The Puerto Rican players were jumping together in the infield when Díaz collapsed to the ground, and he quickly reached for his right leg. Díaz was in tears and did not put any weight on the leg.

Díaz’s brother, Cincinnati pitcher Alexis Díaz, was also crying as Edwin was taken away.

Christian Vázquez homered in a four-run third inning as Puerto Rico advanced to the WBC quarterfinals to face Mexico today in Miami.

It’s just the second time ever that Dominican Republic didn’t make it past the first round (2009).

United States 3, Colombia 2

Mike Trout had three hits and three RBIs, and the United States used a stellar night from its deep bullpen to beat Colombia 3-2 and advance to a quarterfinal against Venezuela on Saturday.

Mexico and the U.S. both finished with a 3-1 record in Group C to advance.

Merrill Kelly gave up two runs in three innings for the Americans. Kelly then gave way to a parade of hard throwing bullpen arms: Kendall Graveman, Daniel Bard, David Bednar, Jason Adam, Devin Williams and Ryan Pressly each threw a scoreless inning to finish the win.