QUEENS, NY — Perhaps losing two of three to a last-place team with a playoff spot on the line is enough of an indication that the New York Mets don’t deserve to be playing baseball in October.
Once again playing catch-up, the Mets (80-76) were unable to overcome an early three-run deficit and dropped a vital rubber game to the lowly Washington Nationals 3-2 on Sunday afternoon in the club’s home regular-season finale at Citi Field — and perhaps the last game they play in Queens until 2026.
With the Cincinnati Reds’ 1-0 win over the Chicago Cubs, the Mets are no longer in a postseason spot, as the NL Central club leap-frogged them Sunday for the third and final Wild Card berth.
“We gotta keep going,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We have six more [games], a lot can happen.”
Washington center fielder Jacob Young, who made a circus, kicking catch in the fifth inning to rob Brett Baty of an extra-base hit, made the biggest play of the day in the bottom of the ninth when he made a leaping catch at the wall to take back pinch-hitter Francisco Alavarez’s potential game-tying home run.
“The ball didn’t bounce our way,” Mendoza said. “That last inning, pretty unbelievable. [Young] is elite there. He takes his eyes off the ball, has the awareness of where the wall is at, and makes an unbelievable play.”
The Nationals plated all three of their runs in the second inning off opener Sean Manaea, who got the start in a second-straight piggyback game alongside Clay Holmes, who started last week’s experiment against the San Diego Padres.
Bronx native Nasim Nunez provided the big blow with a two-run home run after Jorge Alfaro’s double and a throwing error by Francisco Lindor plated the game’s opening run just moments earlier.
“I thought I got [my fastball] in on Nunez but it caught a little too much of the plate,” Manaea said. “As far as stuff-wise, I thought I was pretty good.”
The Mets got on the board in the third, albeit through chaos. Following Luis Torrens’ lead-off double, Cedric Mullins’ fly ball down the left-field line was nearly caught by a sliding Daylen Lile. However, a brutal collision with the side wall prompted the ball to pop out of his glove, allowing Torrens to come around to score after he initially believed it was caught.
Mullins was also unsure, as he waited between first and second. He then attempted to advance to second amid screams from his teammates in the dugout and was tagged out, but time for Lile’s injury was already called, ensuring he remained safe at first. It mattered little, though, as the next batter, Lindor, lined into a double play.
More bad luck befell the Mets in the fifth inning when Brett Baty’s deep fly to center looked destined for extra bases when Young’s leaping attempt saw the ball bounce out of his glove while colliding with the wall. Somehow, he managed to kick the ball just inches from the ground while backpedaling back up into his grasp to complete the catch.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before,” Mendoza said. “The ball came off the glove, and he somehow kicked it to make the play.”
Lindor pulled one back with a lead-off solo home run in the sixth, his 28th of the season. The Mets proceeded to get two men on with one out, but Jeff McNeil popped up to short before Mark Vientos was rung up on a check swing call by first-base umpire Chris Conroy. With one hand, Vientos slammed his bat onto home plate and was immediately ejected from the game.
The Mets left six men on base in the loss, as they now enter the final week of the regular season on the outside of the playoff picture looking in for the first time in months.
“It comes down to winning,” Lindor said. “We put ourselves in this position so we gotta find a way to get out of it. And that comes down to winning.”
