Mistakes doom Mets in walk-off loss

It took eleven innings, but the Mets eventually lost to the Marlins 4-3 on a walk-off double by Bryan Holaday.

The Marlins were not perfect, but as the game went on, they thoroughly outplayed the Mets which led to their victory.

At first it seemed to be coming up Mets in the fourth when left fielder Rafael Ortega made a beautiful catch that he eventually dropped when he hit the wall in left. That gave Wilmer Flores a double and Michael Conforto followed with a walk. Up next was Brandon Nimmo who took an extremely close pitch for ball four. Miami starter Dan Straily clearly disagreed with the call and seemed to get unnerved a bit. Todd Frazier was up next and cleared the bases with a double.

The Marlins struck back in the bottom of the inning when the Mets’ mistakes came back to bite them. With a runner on first and one out, Brian Anderson hit a ball back to starter Corey Oswalt. He turned to throw to second base but nobody was there. Some miscommunication between Amed Rosario and Jeff McNeil led to a double play not being turned.

The inning continued and a double and single later the Mets’ lead was cut to one. Oswalt’s own mistake tied the game when he walked Ortega with one on and two-out ahead of J.T. Realmuto. Realmuto singled and the game was tied 3-3.

From there on out the Marlins took control of them game. They played impeccable defense and stole a few hits away from the Mets. That was problematic for the Mets’ offense since they were completely shut down by the Miami bullpen. Jose Bautista singled in the sixth and their next hit did not come until the eleventh when Wilmer Flores doubled.

As for the Marlins they put together a couple a couple of rallies against the Mets’ bullpen. Bobby Wahl was the first one out of the pen and got into trouble with two outs. He worked his way out of it when he struck out Starlin Castro to end the inning.

Next up was Paul Sewald who had a boatload of trouble on his hands. He loaded the bases with one out, but he struck out Magneuris Sierra and pinch-hitter Isaac Galloway flew out to get Sewald out of trouble.

Tyler Bashlor was definitely the standout out of the pen. He pitched two clean innings and struck out one.

The bullpen was bending but not breaking but the Mets’ offense could not get them any support. Brandon Nimmo had a tough day at the plate and when they put together a rally in the tenth with two-outs, Nimmo grounded out back to the pitcher to give the Marlins a chance to end it in the bottom of the inning.

It took until the eleventh when Jacob Rhame entered. Miguel Rojas led off with a single and was sacrificed over. Pinch-hitter Bryan Holaday finally ended the game when he hit a double to give the Marlins the walk-off win.

Some rookie mistakes by Rosario, McNeil, and Oswalt helped contribute to the loss but some young arms out of the bullpen were also able to show what they can do. In a season such as this hopefully this is a live and learn game that the youngsters can learn from and improve upon going forward.

SB Nation GameThreads

Amazin’ Avenue
Fish Stripes

Box scores

ESPN
MLB

Win Probability Added

Fangraphs.com

What’s WPA?

Big winners: Tyler Bashlor +27.0%, Todd Frazier + 12.0%, Paul Sewald +10.5%, Wilmer Flores +10.3%
Big losers: Jacob Rhame -36.5%, Brandon Nimmo -25.1%, Devin Mesoraco -14.0%, Jeff McNeil -13.1%, Jose Bautista -11.9%
Teh aw3s0mest play: Todd Frazier double in fourth
Teh sux0rest play: Bryan Holaday double in eleventh
Total pitcher WPA: +8.2%
Total batter WPA: -58.2%
GWRBI!: Bryan Holaday