TODAY’S TALKER

Amazin’ at- bat: Mets’ Guillorme draws walk after 22 pitches

This easily could be the most amazin’ at- bat of the entire season — in a spring training game. With his New York Mets teammates cheering, dancing and going crazy in the dugout, Luis Guillorme stood at the plate for more than 10 minutes against rocket- armed St. Louis reliever Jordan Hicks, eventually drawing a 22- pitch walk Sunday.

Guillorme took a called strike on the first pitch, then swung and missed at the second. Quickly down 0- 2, the backup infielder wound up hitting 16 foul balls -nine in a row with a full count.

Pete Alonso, Michael Conforto and the rest of the Mets got more and more animated with every curve, change- up and fastball, including a half- dozen at 100 mph. Finally, Guillorme took a slider down and in for ball four and trotted to first base as the shouts and hollers erupted.“It was definitely a good battle,” Hicks said.

Since Major League Baseball officially began keeping track in 1988, the longest at- bat in a regular- season game was a 21- pitch duel between San Francisco’s Brandon Belt and Angels rookie Jaime Barria that finished with a flyout.

Hicks had just entered in the bottom of the fifth and Guillorme was the first major league batter he had faced since June 2019. Hicks underwent Tommy John surgery shortly after that and opted out of the 2020 season because of coronavirus concerns, having been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in high school.

“It was probably the last thing I thought was going to happen, to be honest, because it’s never happened before,” Hicks told St. Louis media.