STOMACH TURNER
Sloppy Mets lose opener in Atlanta
ATLANTA — The most costly mistake was not an error. Wilmer Flores was charged with two errors that cost the Mets runs Friday night, but David Wright’s mental miscue in the eighth led to the goahead run in the Mets’ 5-3 loss to the Braves at Turner Field.
“You have a split-second to make a decision and it turned out to be the incorrect one,” Wright said.
After Rafael Montero gave up a leadoff double to Chris Johnson leading off the eighth inning, Wright scooped up Andrelton Simmons’ one-out ground ball and instead of throwing to first for the out, he turned and tried to tag pinch-runner Jace Peterson, who was advancing to third. He missed. “You go field the ball and obviously want to get that runner out of scoring position, I thought I could make the tag on him,” Wright said. “He made a nice move to the outside and I couldn’t catch up with him.”
Simmons took second, which was uncovered. That put runners on second and third with one out. Montero intentionally walked Alberto Callaspo to load the bases, and with two out Phil Gosselin lined a single into center to score two runs and break the 3-3 tie.
That capped a night of shaky defense for the Mets.
Flores’ throwing error on Nick Markakis’ grounder in the first inning cost the Mets a run. In the third, Christian Betancourt’s ground ball rode up on Flores and he rushed the throw to first, which was wide, allowing another run to score.
“I am not gonna make excuses,” Flores said. “I am not going to start making them now. I just made bad throws. That’s it.” It was not just the errors. In the fifth, Michael Cuddyer had to leap to pull down Flores’ high throw that pulled him off the bag and then tag out Freddie Freeman. In the sixth, Cuddyer dug out Flores’ throw to get Cameron Maybin.
“We are running him out there, so we have to understand this guy has not played a lot of shortstop in the last few years,” Terry Collins said. “We are going to keep running him out there, but I am going to get Ruben (Tejada) in there a game.”
After Sandy Alderson was unable to sign or trade for a shortstop this winter, the Mets went into the spring committed to riding out Flores’ ups and downs at short. They figured his bat would overcome any defensive problems, but he is 2-for-14 through the first four games.
“I am going to think about it,” Collins said about the chance of sitting Flores on Saturday. “We’ll wait and see.”
Wright had helped erase Flores’ mistakes earlier in the game with his first home run of the season and first since July 11, 2014. After Curtis Granderson worked a leadoff walk in the fourth, Wright crushed a firstpitch home run into the centerfield seats.
John Mayberry Jr., making his first start for the Mets, followed with a solo shot that tied the game at 3.
But there was no making up for the mistake in the eighth.
“We gave them some extra outs two or three times tonight,” Collins said. “At this level, you are going to get beat if you do that.”