LOS ANGELES — As if the second NLCS rematch in less than two weeks wasn’t eventful enough, the apocalypse hit Tuesday at Dodger Stadium
By that, I mean rain, which is basically the same thing as an apocalypse to Angelenos.
It rained prior to the second game of a four-game set between the Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers, with thunder, lightning and a deluge that began seemingly out of nowhere right over Chavez Ravine.
It was an ominous sign of what was to come.
The world didn’t exactly end, but the game ended on a walk-off double by Freddie Freeman in the 10th inning that sailed over Brandon Nimmo’s head after he got turned around trying to track it down at the wall. The Mets lost 6-5 after taking a lead in the fifth inning.
Playing in to defend against a base hit with the ghost runner on second, Freeman got a sweeper over the plate from right-hander Jose Butto and drove it to left field. Nimmo had a read on the ball, but had to turn to get back in time, and it sliced in another direction, leaving him unable to make a play.
“As soon as he hit it, I knew it was hit well,” Nimmo said. “I put my head down to get back towards the fence. It went over the left shoulder, and when I looked up, it was still over the left shoulder.”
He turned again toward the wall, and when he spun around, it was over his right shoulder, and the ball landed about a foot in front of him, bouncing off the warning track and banking off the wall.
“I checked the wall real quick and put my eyes back up, and it moved to the other shoulder,” Nimmo said. “So by that time, there’s not enough time to recover.”
Juan Soto hit a two-run homer off left-hander Clayton Kershaw, Pete Alonso went 2-for-5 with a double and two RBI, and right-hander Tylor Megill turned his night around with a gritty effort on the mound.
But one night after throwing 31 pitches, right-hander Huascar Brazobán couldn’t protect a one-run lead, giving up a leadoff bomb to Max Muncy in the bottom of the ninth, the second one of the night for the Dodgers’ third baseman.
“We went into the game probably trying to stay away from him,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of Brazobán. “But he felt good coming in today, played catch, and we felt good with using him. Got ahead 1-2, and left too good of a pitcher to a good hitter, and he made him pay for it.”
Brazobán recovered to strike out the next three, sending the game into extra innings for the second night in a row.
The bullpen was thin. The Mets innings have been adding up for the bullpen with starters only going about five innings, and Mendoza didn’t have his full group of high-leverage relievers. He couldn’t use setup man Ryne Stanek or closer Edwin Diaz after they pitched Monday night, and he didn’t have left-hander Jose Castillo either.
Megill gave the Mets six innings, turning his night around after giving up four runs in the fourth. By the time Megill returned to the mound for the bottom of the second down 4-1, he looked like a different pitcher. He stopped throwing so many fastballs and started mixing his pitches to keep hitters off balance.
It worked. Megill held Dodgers scoreless over the next five innings, retiring the next eight straight hitters before giving up a double to Andy Pages, then retiring the next seven. He struck out seven over those five frames.
Left-hander Brandon Waddell pitched the seventh, and the Mets went to Garrett to face the top of the order in the eighth, starting with Shohei Ohtani.
“Waddell comes in and he’s pretty much your long man,” Mendoza said. “He gets three outs, and then, in the eighth inning, up one, you don’t have many bullets, so I shot Garrett there, the best that I have available against the best hitters there. And then you hopefully get the last three outs with Brazobán.”
Soto took Kershaw deep in the third for a two-run shot to pull the Mets within one. It was his 11th home run of the season and his third in four games, a sign that maybe the slugger is starting to shake off his slow start to the season. With two on and two out in the fifth, Alonso hit a double to the gap to score Francisco Lindor and even the score at 4-4.
Nimmo beat the throw from Muncy for an infield single to score the go-ahead run. He was called out, but the call was overturned after the Mets challenged the ruling.
Nimmo might have put the Mets ahead, but his inability to make a play ultimately cost them the game.
“I had a read on it,” Nimmo said. “In fact, I thought I was going to [make the catch] as long as it was staying in the park… I have a lot of years of experience that told me kind of like the reactions of these things. And that one was kind of like a different reaction. I was very surprised to find it over the other shoulder. So obviously, a very unfortunate time for that to happen.”
