The New York Mets won 7-6 in 11 innings on Monday night against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park despite numerous questionable moves in an important early season game.
With the Mets up 6-5 in the eighth inning, manager Mickey Callaway went back to Jeurys Familia, who struggled the night before against the Atlanta Braves on Sunday.
The first two hitters of the eighth inning reached base via a single and a walk respectively. Phillies third baseman Maikel Franco stepped to the plate with the tying run on second with nobody out. Luckily for Familia, Mets third baseman Jeff McNeil made a great play at third on a hard hit ball to turn it into a 5-4-3 double play.
Familia wasn’t out of the woods just yet. The next batter walked, giving the Phillies the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on first. Mets right-handed reliever Robert Gsellman was warming in the Mets bullpen as SNY went to a shot of closer Edwin Diaz walking around with his sweatshirt still on.
Callaway would stay with Familia with the tying run on, despite him having already walked two in the inning. The former Mets closer would then walk Andrew McCutchen to load the bases.
Mets are up one run with two outs in the bottom of the eighth against a division foe, surely they will bring in their best reliever?
Nope, here comes Robert Gsellman (hitters slashing .341/.372/.610 against him entering the day) to pitch in the biggest spot of the game.
Not surprisingly, Gsellman would walk Jean Segura to force home the tying run. Bryce Harper would then pop up to end the inning… fortunately.
After the game Callaway was asked why Diaz wasn’t used in that spot and told Tim Britton of The Athletic, “He’s not going to get four outs, he’s going to get three.”
Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen backed up his manager by saying the Mets current plan is to only use Diaz for three outs (during regular season) as part of a “win-now and win-in-the-future” plan.
Research shows that while the Mariners only used Diaz for more than three outs on only three occasions last season, they did so eight times in 2017 and nine in 2016 (part of season he was used as setup man).
Gsellman would send the game to extra innings with a 1-2-3 ninth, and then Luis Avila would follow with a scoreless 10th despite allowing two base hits (he faced four righties and a switch-hitter).
The Mets got the first two runners on in the top of the 11th inning which allowed Callaway to get Diaz warming.
But who was warming up next to Diaz in case the game stayed tied? Drew Gagnon, the right-hander that was just added to the roster earlier in the day even though he had thrown 5.1 innings and 87 pitches on Friday for Triple-A Syracuse.
Thanks to a Juan Lagares hustle play, the Mets would take a 7-6 lead into the 11th inning. Diaz finally came in and had one the most dominant outings for a Mets reliever in recent memory, striking out Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins, and J.T. Realmuto in order to end the game.
Let’s get back to Gagnon though. Had the Mets not scored a run in the top of the 11th inning, Callaway was going to pitch Gagnon against the Phillies’ 3-4-5 hitters in a tie game.
Callaway, apparently fine with potentially losing a game without using his best reliever, was adamant about this decision after the game.
“Well once you run out of pitchers, you’re going to have to pitch him. That’s simple. Once you get a lead, he’s [Diaz] in the lead. We had Gagnon ready to go. He might have to go six until we scored a run and then Diaz would come into the game.”
After the game, Diaz spoke to reporters and said, “I will do whatever he wants, and be ready every time they need me. If they want me three or more outs, I’ll be ready. They want me one inning, I’ll be ready.”
The Mets got an important early season win on Monday night, but you have to question whether Mickey Callaway’s though process is going to cost them more games in the long-run.
