BOOOOOO- After sorry start, day ends with Citi Field love-fest TIFUL!
Tonight’s already a washout
Mother Nature will pause the Mets’ momentum again. The Mets announced tonight’s game against the Marlins was postponed due to rainy weather expected in the forecast. It will be made up as part of a single-admission doubleheader on Sept. 28 at Citi Field, with first pitch at 4:10 p.m.
The Amazin’s will carry a threegame winning streak into Thursday for the finale against the Marlins. As the calendar flips to September, Carlos Carrasco (0-2, 6.94 ERA) will take the mound for his seventh start of the year.
Michael Conforto, who entered double digits in home runs with the Mets’ 3-1 victory over the Marlins in Game 2 on Tuesday, isn’t worried about the weather putting a damper on the team’s winning streak.
“Right now, the doubleheader sweep is huge,” Conforto said. “That’s momentum that we can carry over into the off-day or, rain day. These guys always show up ready to play. They always show up ready to go. Now, when we’re on a little bit of a streak, we’re definitely going to be ready to play on Thursday.”
CONFORTO SLAMS BAT
After Conforto popped out to first base in the eighth inning, he took out his season-long frustration on the Mets dugout. Conforto slammed his bat and helmet against the bat rack in a display of emotion that fans haven’t seen from the Mets right fielder. But a slumping season will do that to Conforto, who is batting .217 through 97 games in his walk year.
He started a three-run rally in the fourth inning of Game 2 with a two-run home run to the right-field upper deck.
NIDO BACK ON IL
Tomas Nido was again placed on the injured list Tuesday, retroactive to Aug. 28, due to the same thumb injury that put him on the IL earlier this month. Backup catcher Chance Sisco was recalled, and Patrick Mazeika will again resume starting catcher duties while James McCann (back spasms) recovers.
Javy Baez let winning baseball do the talking.
The Mets picked up a game where they left off on April 11 against the Marlins, with a runner on first base and one out in the top of the first inning. In that suspended April game, Marcus Stroman had stood atop a muddy slosh of a mound while rain poured all around him.
During a delay of four months, 19 days, 23 hours and 55 minutes, the Mets’ landscape became quite different, and Tuesday the club struggled with another mess as Baez explained and apologized for his thumbs-down gesture, which was meant to “boo” Mets fans.
The only thing that would truly end the absurd controversy would be winning, and Baez played a key role in ensuring fans not only applauded but cheered their lungs out as the Mets came back from a four-run deficit in the ninth inning to record a 6-5 walk-off victory over the Marlins in the opener at Citi Field.
The Mets (65-67) again beat the Marlins, 3-1, in the nightcap, which was a seven-inning game. Since the first game on Tuesday counted as an April 11 win, the Mets have won three games in a row dating back to Saturday.
Baez, who became Public Enemy No. 1 on
Sunday when he revealed what the team’s thumbs-down gesture really meant, redeemed himself 48 hours later in the ninth inning of the opener. Representing the winning run with two outs and runners on second and third, Baez lined an infield single to shortstop that scored Dominic Smith and trimmed the deficit to 5-4. Baez took in the applause at first base silently and frozen. Michael Conforto then sliced an RBI single to left field that Jorge Alfaro kicked away. Baez, sprinting from second to third, glanced at Alfaro’s mistake and turned on the jets. He slid home, beating the errant throw, and scored
the winning run. Mets players, Francisco Lindor chief among them, mobbed Baez to celebrate the storybook ending.
“We gotta keep winning,” Conforto said. “Winning is all we want. Winning is all the fans want. We’re all pulling in the same direction here. I don’t know what one game does, but I can tell you that the guys wanted to win this game about as badly as any other game we’ve played. In short: Winning cures all.”
It wasn’t all fairy dust and flowers for Baez. In his first appearance since booing the fan base, he pinch-hit for Jeff McNeil in the eighth and was greeted by an onslaught of fierce and heavy boos from the Citi Field crowd of just over 8,000. The boos and cries of, “You suck!” persisted throughout his at-bat, until he was hit by a pitch. As he walked to first base, the crowd cheered.
It was a good example of exactly what can silence the fans’ boos: getting on base, being productive and, of course, winning.
“A lot could be seen from that final play,” Conforto said of what Baez has brought to the Mets on the field. “The baseball IQ is elite. He’s got the swing, he’s got crazy power, he’s got incredible defense. Great teammate. He came in here and he’s here to win. He’s here to be a big part of this team.”
Thumbs up for wins.