Losing in walk off fashion is always a punch to the gut. What made yesterdays loss feel so much worse were the questionable calls made in the later innings of the game. Those calls came from both the umpires and Terry Collins.
During the ninth inning there were two calls that went against the Mets. First was a ball that was lined down the right field line by Cody Asche. It seemed to hook around the bag as Lucas Duda dove into foul territory to try to make the play. As soon as the play came to an end, Collins sprinted out of the dugout to discuss the call with the first base umpire.
“My whole thing was Lucas is on the line, playing no doubles. He dives for the ball and can’t get near it. The ball has got to be pretty much foul for me. That was my argument. I just asked the home-plate umpire. I know he’s not allowed to check (on instant replay). You can’t challenge it. I just thought the home-plate umpire might have had a better angle” (Adam Rubin, ESPN).
According to Adam Rubin of ESPN, the Mets were not blaming the umpires for the loss but Collins did feel the club was wronged by the call.
Later in that inning, Jenry Mejia threw a very close pitch to Chase Utley that was called a ball. It was a very, very close pitch, hindered by Travis d’Arnaud‘s quick throw to second as Marlon Byrd stole second base. With that ball the count went full to Utley and Collins made the call from the dugout to intentionally walk him.
After the game it seemed as if Mejia was less than thrilled with that decision. Six pitches later the game was over and the Phillies were celebrating. “I wanted to finish” Mejia told Rubin, “I’m not the manager. I just pitch and have to do whatever the manager wants me to do. There’s nothing I can do, just give a walk and face Howard.”
Walking Utley in that situation makes a lot of sense. He is the teams best hitter and with a runner on second, the runner on first means nothing. Ryan Howard was on deck and he came into that at bat hitting just .216. It was the correct move from a stats perspective but that’s baseball. It backfired on Collins as three blown calls sank the Mets on Sunday.
