Home field advantage typically refers to bigger locker rooms, shorter commutes and friendly fans, but facing the San Diego Padres on Monday night at Citi Field, the Mets received an advantage in the form of some dirt and paint.
Two rollers in the same inning made for a couple of entertaining moments. Tens of thousands of fans watched intently to see if a bunt up the third-base side by Luis Guillorme would roll foul and a slow roller off the bat of Tomas Nido just two batters later would do the same. They both stayed fair and the Mets capitalized by scoring three runs in the seventh inning to defeat the Padres, 5-0.
“The umpire’s call was the same and they ended up in about the same place,” manager Buck Showalter said. “Great job by Bill [Deacon], our groundskeeper. That’s what it’s supposed to do if it’s level, right?”
With the Mets up 2-0 in the seventh, Yu Darvish came back out for his seventh inning of work and promptly gave up a leadoff double to Mark Canha. Guillorme attempted a sacrifice bunt, which is where the entertainment began.
Guillorme’s bunt rolled slowly up the left side of the infield, right along the narrow strip of dirt between the baseline and the grass. Darvish, along with third baseman Manny Machado and and home plate umpire Lance Barksdale followed the ball’s path expecting it to roll foul. But it came to rest right on the line, staying fair for a single for Guillorme and giving Canha more than enough time to get to third base.
Eduardo Escobar hit one right into the left fielder’s glove but it was deep enough for Canha to score, putting the Mets (6-5) up 3-0.
Nido chopped one to the left and, once again, the ball traced an identical path with the same crew following. The umpire signaled fair. The fans erupted. The Mets dugout exploded with laughter. It was pure comedy for everyone except the Padres (6-5), who then replaced Darvish with lefty Tim Hill.
“You know you have a good grounds crew if the ball is staying fair like that,” said Mets utility man Jeff McNeil. He would know: While playing college ball at Long Beach State, he was responsible for packing the dirt on the baselines to create paths for balls to stay in play.
“My job at Long Beach State was to tamp the lines to make sure the ball does that,” he said. “After every game, we had to tamp the lines to make sure the ball stays fair.”
Hill got Brandon Nimmo to ground into a force out, but that still left runners on the corners. Francisco Lindor doubled to score them both.
Darvish (0-1) was charged with five runs on six hits over 6 1/3 innings, walking one and striking out five.
Max Scherzer (2-1) went hitless through the first 4 1/3 innings, surrendering a single to Ha-Seong Kim in the fifth. But he pitched around Kim to get out of the inning relatively easily. Three walks prevented Scherzer from going deep into the game, but he still earned the win with five shutout innings, allowing one hit in five innings of work and striking out six.
“I thought I was able to avoid the big hit and was able to sequence well enough,” Scherzer said. “I had every off-speed pitch going. I thought all of my off-speed pitches had good shape. I was able to pitch well with that.”
Scherzer also said he had a case of the “just-misses,” missing with his fastball and getting into bad counts. The Padres were able to push his pitch count early and he used 64 bullets through three innings while Darvish cruised. But the Mets picked Scherzer up in a big way in the bottom of the third, giving him two very important runs to work with.
Darvish was nearly out of the inning with two out and none on, but Nimmo singled up the middle and stole second base. Then Darvish beaned Lindor to put two on with two out.
Darvish threw Jeff McNeil a sweeper. It was the wrong pitch to throw the 2022 NL batting champ. McNeil flared it into right field and it rolled to the corner. Nimmo scored and Lindor hustled all the way around from first base, reaching home safely with an especially smooth slide.
“I wasn’t able to control the count well with them, but they’re a good team,” Scherzer said. “You make mistakes and they’ll burn you.”
The Mets used right-handers John Curtiss, Drew Smith, David Robertson and Adam Ottavino to close out and get back into the win column.
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