The Mets suffered a frustrating 6-5 walk-off, extra-inning loss to the Dodgers tonight in Los Angeles. The game seemed destined to be a lopsided result early, but a bounce back effort by Tylor Megill turned this one into another nail-biter that ended in extremely confusing and anticlimactic fashion.
The Mets jumped out to an early lead right away off Clayton Kershaw in the first. Starling Marte singled with one out and a wild pitch advanced him to second. Pete Alonso laced a two-out single to drive in Marte and put the Mets on the board.
The Dodgers promptly responded with a crooked number in the bottom of the frame, tagging Tylor Megill for four runs. Megill began his night by striking out Shohei Ohtani, but then Mookie Betts singled and Freddie Freeman doubled down the right field line to score Betts and tie the game. Freeman advanced to third on a tough error charged to Jeff McNeil, who bobbled the cutoff throw on the transfer, giving Freeman time to reach third base safely. Megill then walked Teoscar Hernández and Will Smith hit a grounder to third slow enough to bring Freeman home and give the Dodgers the lead. Max Muncy followed with a two-run homer and in a blink of an eye, it was 4-1 Dodgers and it looked like Tylor Megill was heading for disaster and an early shower.
But that is not what came to pass. To Megill’s credit, he righted the ship and shut the Dodgers down for the next five innings, allowing the Mets to get back into the game. At one point, Megill retired nine Dodgers in a row before Andy Pages hit a two-out double in the fourth to snap that streak. All told, Megill struck out seven Dodgers over six innings of work and issued just the one walk—the first inning walk to to Hernández. He was assisted in the fourth by a web gem from Juan Soto, who reached over the side wall to make a fantastic catch to retire Will Smith for the first out of the inning.
Soto was able to contribute on both sides of the ball tonight. In the top of the third, Francisco Lindor singled to lead off the inning and with one out, Juan Soto hit a two-run homer to bring the Mets within a run. The Mets took the lead in the fifth thanks in part to a crucial error by Max Muncy in the field. Lindor was the rally-starter again, drawing a one-out walk. Then Starling Marte hit a sharp grounder that went right between Muncy’s legs, so instead of two outs, the Dodgers recorded none and that came back to bite them. Soto popped out to short for the second out, but then Pete Alonso came through again for the second time on the night with an RBI double in the gap to tie the game. Brandon Nimmo then hit a slow chopper to first and Freddie Freeman’s flip to Kershaw was just a little too late; Nimmo was initially called out at first, but replay review revealed him to be obviously safe, bringing in Marte with the go-ahead run.
That ended Kershaw’s night after just 4 2⁄3 innings of work and Ben Casparius came in the game and did his job for the Dodgers, pitching 2 2⁄3 scoreless innings in long relief with two strikeouts. Brandon Waddell, freshly up again from Triple-A as a well-rested arm in a heavily utilized bullpen, then pitched in his highest leverage situation so far this season and passed the test with flying colors, working around a two-out walk to pitch a scoreless seventh inning.
Reed Garrett got himself into a jam in the eighth and escaped it with a miraculous performance. He walked Ohtani to lead off the inning and then with the outfielders positioned toward right field, Mookie Betts placed a bloop hit perfectly in no-man’s land in shallow left-center that dropped in front of a helpless Tyrone Taylor to put the go-ahead run on base. Francisco Alvarez then made a crucial mistake, trying too hard to frame a pitch and allowing the ball to clank off his glove instead for a passed ball, advancing the runners to second and third still with nobody out. Garrett then notched a huge strikeout of Freddie Freeman for the first out and induced a ground ball to third from Teoscar Hernández that resulted in Ohtani being retired in a rundown between third and home. Betts advanced to third on the play and Hernández stayed put at first. Garrett then neutralized the rally by striking out Will Smith, pumping his fist and yelling triumphantly as he strode off the mound.
Dave Roberts (barely) won a managing chess match in the top of the ninth. Jeff McNeil laced a one-out double to the gap in right-center off former Met José Ureña. Luisangel Acuña pinch ran for McNeil and stood on second base carrying a vital possible insurance run. Carlos Mendoza then pinch hit the lefty Brett Baty for Starling Marte, but Roberts countered by putting in the lefty Anthony Banda to face him. Mendoza then made another move, pinch hitting Luis Torrens instead. Torrens gave one a ride to the warning track in left-center, but Dodger Stadium was just big enough to hold it and Andy Pages tracked it down to end the inning.
Huascar Brazobán was tasked with closing the game and the Mets blew a save on a second straight night. Max Muncy hit an absolute bomb for his second home run of the evening to tie the game. Brazobán then bounced back to strike out the next three batters to keep the game tied and send the Mets and Dodgers to extras yet again. And yet again, the Mets faced off against Tanner Scott in extras, but this time, Scott set the Mets down 1-2-3 in the top of the tenth with strikeouts of Juan Soto and Pete Alonso.
The Dodgers walked it off in the bottom of the tenth—not with a bang, but with an “eh??” José Buttó took the mound for the Mets with Tommy Edman as the ghost runner at second base. The Mets walked Shohei Ohtani intentionally and then Buttó retired Mookie Betts on a lineout to left. Freddie Freeman then hit a fly ball to the warning track in left field, but Brandon Nimmo got turned around and the ball fell right next to him—and I mean right next to him—with a decisive “plop” and that is how yet another exhausting marathon extra-inning game between the Mets and Dodgers ended.
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Box scores
Win Probability Added
Big Mets winner: Pete Alonso, +14.0% WPA
Big Mets loser: Huascar Brazobán, -30.8% WPA
Mets pitchers: -33.3% WPA
Mets hitters: -16.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Pete Alonso’s game tying RBI double in the fifth, +16.7% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Max Muncy’s game tying homer in the ninth, -44.1% WPA