Mets closer Edwin Diaz exited the ninth inning of Sunday night’s game with an apparent injury.
Diaz labored through his appearance. He walked Didi Gregorius on four pitches to begin his night. Nick Maton popped out. Then Roman Quinn drove a ball into the right-center gap for a triple allowing Gregorius to score.
It’s the first outing Diaz has allowed a run since April 10. In two prior appearances against the Phillies, they failed to record a hit against him.
Diaz settled back in and struck out Odubel Herrera. Pinch-hitting, Matt Joyce walked to put the tying run on base. Rhys Hoskins launched a ball toward the right-field bleachers initially ruled a home run. After review, the umps ruled the baseball hit off the bar in front of the stands and not the seats. It was ruled a double and Diaz was removed immediately.
Diaz threw 28 pitched in the inning, 14 for strikes. Trainers checked on him during the home run review and Jeurys Familia was called in with two outs.
Diaz’s velocity was above his yearly average during the inning. He hit 100.8 miles per hour with his fastball.
When pitching coach Jeremy Hefner came out to the mound in the ninth, Diaz told Jeremy that his back was a little tight but he could still pitch through it. Rojas said, “He got tight throughout the outing and after the double when they were checking the replay we decided to go in there. It was tight. It was tough for him to rotate his core and really get an extension on his pitches. I know he was in the training room after the game. We’ll check him out for tomorrow.”
