Wilmer delivers walk-off again
Wilmer Flores did it again, and no one should be surprised anymore. The Mets’ platooning first baseman continued his penchant for the timeliest of key runs batted in, notching his second walk-off RBI of the season — and the eighth of his career — with a game-winning sacrifice fly in the ninth inning of the Mets’ 5-4 comeback victory Saturday night over Arizona.
Despite never receiving as many as 500 at-bats in any season with the Mets, Flores’ six game-ending RBI since the start of the 2015 campaign are the most in the majors.
“Honestly, I’m not thinking about the walk-off, I’m thinking about how to bring the run in,” Flores said. “As a hitter, you can’t think about a walk-off. I think like it’s the first inning or the fifth inning.”
Flores is batting just .175 with no homers through 40 at-bats against left-handed pitching this season, but Mickey Callaway was expecting a professional at-bat with runners on first and third and none out in the ninth against Arizona southpaw Andrew Chafin.
Flores’ lofted the ball to left and it was deep enough to score Brandon Nimmo easily with the winning run.
“He has such a short, quick swing,” Callaway said of Flores. “If you throw a ball that he’s able to get to, he’s not going to swing and miss. He’s just a guy that is real simple, no stride, just kind of holds the bat there and gets the barrel to the ball. That becomes real valuable, especially in a situation like that where you’ve got two strikes on you.”
DOWN GOES FRAZIER
To the minors, that is. Injured third baseman Todd Frazier (hamstring) was eligible to come off the disabled list on Friday but he’s not yet ready to begin a minor-league rehab assignment. Frazier has resumed taking batting practice, but he still feels the injury while running.
“If I gave you a timestamp I’d be lying to you,” Frazier said. “We’re taking it day by day. It’s just one of those things that I’ve never had before. It’s a mild strain and takes some time to heal. So we want to be 100 percent. I’d rather lose two more weeks if that’s the case than two more months.”
Frazier indicated he doesn’t expect his rehab assignment to take place at Triple-A Las Vegas, perhaps closer to New York in Single-A St. Lucie or Double-A Binghamton.
“No, it would be somewhere closer, for sure,” he said. “Vegas is a nice city, though. But it’s too far.”
A HEAVY LOAD
Through 40 games (essentially one quarter of the season), Robert Gsellman (27.2 IP) and Seth Lugo (25.1) each are on pace to throw more than 100 innings out of the bullpen. No reliever in baseball threw as many as 90 in 2017.
“It’s probably not going to be that high, but it’s going to be higher than most,” Callaway said. “That’s the reason we have Lugo and Gsellman in the bullpen. They throw 90 innings, I wouldn’t be surprised. That’s what we set out to do when we put them in the pen.”
ROYAL CONGRATS
The Mets congratulated Prince Harry on his wedding to actress Meghan Markle on Saturday in their game notes and on their Twitter feed. Prince Harry threw out the first pitch before a 2010 game at Citi Field.