Mets’ late rally extends D-Backs’ freefall
NEW YORK – After Devin Mesoraco’s two-run blast cleared the left-field fence in the eighth inning on Saturday night, cameras caught Diamondbacks reliever Archie Bradley’s reaction. His eyes were wide. He looked stunned.
An inning later, the New York Mets poured out of the home dugout in celebration. They mobbed Wilmer Flores near the first-base bag. They had taken a shocking 5-4 victory at Citi Field.
The script might have changed for the Diamondbacks, but the ending remained the same. This time, instead of their offense going down with a whimper, it was their normally airtight bullpen that failed them.
The loss was the Diamondbacks’ third in a row, their ninth out of their past 10 games and their 12th in 16. They continued to look on as the cushion they built with their incredible start has all but vanished, their lead atop the National League West sitting at a halfgame.
In a quiet clubhouse after the game, Bradley ran through his inning and took stock of the room. He called it a loss that hurt more than most, given the position the Diamondbacks were in late, given the way the club has struggled in recent weeks.
But it was what he hasn’t been seeing that seemed to pique his interest. He thought back to the losing clubs he’d been on in the past, to the emotional reactions he’d witnessed from teammates. This didn’t feel the same.
“I’ve seen guys freak out, I’ve seen guys throw stuff, things like that,” he said. “That really hasn’t been the case here. We all understand we have a really good team. We have really good players. We have a great coaching staff.
“Everything we’re doing is the same thing we were doing when we were winning games. We’re just not executing in those big situations like we were before, tonight being a perfect example.”
Twice in the first four innings, the Mets chose to pitch to the Diamondbacks’ John Ryan Murphy with two outs despite pitcher Patrick Corbin standing on deck. Both times, Murphy delivered, first with a run-scoring single in the second, then, two innings later, with a tworun homer to make it a 4-2 game.
In between, slumping slugger Paul Goldschmidt connected for his first home run in more than a month, a 353footer that took advantage of the short porch in left field. His teammates gave him a light-hearted celebration, greeting him with the silent treatment when he first returned to the dugout.
Murphy’s homer made it just the second time in the past 10 games – and just the fifth time this month – that the offense had managed at least four runs. But the Mets erased their deficit in a blink in the eighth – doing so with the Diamondbacks’ best reliever on the mound.
Jay Bruce shot the first pitch Bradley threw into right field for a leadoff single. Mesoraco followed by hammering a 1-0 fastball into left-center for a game-tying blast.
The sequence extended what has been an uncharacteristically rough stretch for Bradley. In a game at Chase Field on May 10, he balked home the tying run in the eighth in a game the Washington Nationals would go on to win in extra innings.
Three days later, Bradley served up a go-ahead homer to the Nationals’ Mark Reynolds. After not having factored into a loss for nearly a month and a half, Bradley has suddenly had a hand in three of them.
“When things are going bad, they’re just kind of going bad and it doesn’t matter what side of it,” Bradley said. “We’re a whole group and we’re just not playing very well altogether.”
He added, “You can put it on me. I’ll take responsibility right now. We’ve got to keep trucking. We’ve got to keep fighting and come back tomorrow and save a series.”
The Mets wasted little time in the ninth, as well. Facing Diamondbacks reliever Andrew Chafin, Brandon Nimmo led off with a double, went to third on Asdrubal Cabrera’s bunt single and then scored on Flores’ sac fly to left.
The outcome leaves the Diamondbacks in a tough spot as they look to avoid a sweep on Sunday. They’ll face Mets flamethrower Noah Syndergaard while running out their latest fifthstarter candidate, Clay Buchholz.