The Mets suffered their fourth consecutive loss on Saturday night, as the team managed just three hits and let up four runs in the final two innings, resulting in a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
After the loss, Pete Alonso was open about how frustrating it is to drop a game they could have easily won. The All-Star acknowledged the team’s struggles at the plate with runners on base late in the game, and was disappointed they “couldn’t close this one out.”
“Yeah, extremely frustrating for sure,” Alonso said. “I mean, I don’t know where this would rank. But, I mean, it’s frustrating and a bit disappointing to come up short like that. I mean there’s a lot of things that we could for sure improve on.
“I mean, we didn’t hit well. We had some opportunities, especially there late in the game. That’s a tough one. We had guys on base late in the game in the seventh and eighth inning, yeah, nothing came of it We just had Brandon‘s [Nimmo] homer and one run isn’t going to get it done. I mean [Kodai] He worked pitched incredible, thought we played great defense as a whole. Just couldn’t close this one out unfortunately.”
In the top of the eighth inning, Alonso made a slightly high throw to Francisco Lindor on what should’ve been a double-play, but instead the throw back to first was just late, allowing a run to score. Afterwards, Alonso said he made an “OK throw” on the play, but “threw it just a bit too high.”
“I don’t regret making my decision of throwing to second, just wish I could’ve executed a little better,” Alonso said when asked about the play.
The mistake wasn’t the only one made by New York late in the game, as Brett Baty misplayed a pop-up in the top of the ninth that allowed the Dodgers to score and keep the inning alive. Los Angeles went on to score two more runs in the ninth and take a commanding 5-1 lead. After the game, the third baseman explained what went wrong on the play and said there aren’t any excuses for the mistake.
“Lefty was up, I was trying to hold the runner close to the bag, and it went up, I actually thought I was going to catch it in foul ground. And then took my eye off it for one second, and kind of got spun around. But there’s no excuses for that, play needs to be made,” Baty said.
Baty added: “Just with the lefty hitting it, it had some funky spin on it for sure. I originally went into foul ground like I was going to catch it in foul ground, looked down to make sure I didn’t hit the base , and then it came back into fair territory. And then made it worse too by diving for it and letting it scoot away. That was bad.”
Manager Buck Showalter was also asked about the costly error, saying “it’s not as easy” of a play as fans watching may think.
“It’s not as easy as it may look,” Showalter said. “It starts out in foul territory and drifts all the way back to where you saw it ended up.”
Baty went on to mention what he and Lindor spoke about after the play, acknowledging that he needs to improve his communication on the field.
“We were just talking about the communication part of it,” Baty said. “He said, ‘Did you see it the whole way?’ And I said, ‘I kind of lost it when I took my eye off of it.’ He was like, ‘Just talk next time because I have a better angle for it.’
“But yeah, I need to communicate better for sure.”
Baty added that he’s not going to let the error stick with him, and he’ll continue to show up ready to play and work hard “every single day.”
“I’m gonna come in here and be the same guy every single day,” Baty said. “I’m gonna come in here and work really hard and just go out there and compete when it’s time. I’m not gonna let anything outside make me different from that. I’m gonna come in here and work hard and be the same guy every single day.”
Alonso noted how frustrating a loss like Saturday night’s is when he believes the quality of the team’s at-bats were good.
“Yeah, it stinks, for sure, especially when you have a good at-bat, you capitalize on a pitch,” Alonso said. “And as a hitter you just wish you could have a magic wand and make the ball find grass or a seat, but it doesn’t work that way… You could go up and down the lineup about having good quality at- bats. It sucks because yeah the results, especially tonight, aren’t there. I mean the quality of the at-bats, the quality of outs, I hate to say it, you want to stay right there and hopefully next time around the balls find grass or a seat.”
Alonso was then asked how the Mets hope to keep their faith up after another tough late-inning loss, and said the team needs to continue to stick together and show up the following day ready to go out there and win.
“Just focus day in and day out,” Alonso said. “I mean for us, you can’t change the past. The only thing that we can do is focus on winning tomorrow, being locked in and being ready to go at 1:40.
“And also like, the guys in this clubhouse are true professionals, it’s a great group of guys. I know I’ve said that all year, but we stick together, we work hard, and we leave it out there. Wherever the score ends up at the end of the day, if we’re on top, that’s great, it’s another W. Or if not, we’ll try and make the adjustment and improve upon it the next day. Tomorrow’s a good opportunity for us. “