SAN DIEGO — The Mets fought.
Against the Padres. With home-plate umpire Emil Jimenez, repeatedly. And right until their final swing.
But a particularly wild night of California baseball ended with pitching and fielding mishaps overshadowing the Mets’ pugnacity in a walk-off, 7-6, series-opening loss at a loud and sold-out Petco Park on Monday.
Frankie Montas and Huascar Brazobán imploded to flush a four-run lead in the fifth inning. Ronny Mauricio launched a game-tying homer that forced the Padres to take their turn at bat in the ninth inning, which is when the most dramatic moments of a dramatic night unfolded.
Against new Met Gregory Soto, Xander Bogaerts singled. A pinch-hitting Jose Iglesias — yep, that Jose Iglesias — laid down a bunt, which Soto fielded and threw to second base for the force out, but his wild throw pulled Francisco Lindor off the bag.
Soto retired two straight Padres batters before Elias Diaz drilled a single into left-center, driving in Iglesias for the game-winning run.
“Back and forth game,” manager Carlos Mendoza said after the Mets (62-45) wasted a grand slam from Mark Vientos and the ninth-inning shot from Mauricio and saw their seven-game winning streak come to an end.
Montas (4 ⅓ innings, five runs) could not survive the fifth inning, and the trouble he handed to Brazobán only escalated in the Padres’ five-run frame.
After Vientos drilled a go-ahead grand slam in the top of the fifth inning that could have been the game’s deciding moment, Montas crumbled in the bottom of the inning.
A double from Fernando Tatis Jr., who was monstrous for the Padres, began the trouble. Luis Arraez then sent a ball to the moon, and when it came down, it bounced the right field pole for a two-run homer. Manny Machado singled before Bogaerts hammered a double into the left field corner, which prompted Brazobán to enter.
“I was just missing spots,” Montas said. “I got to be better hitting spots.”
With two outs, Jake Cronenworth hammered an infield single that a sliding Pete Alonso nabbed before Brazobán lost the footrace to first base to score another run and keep the inning alive.
“The game kind of got fast on him after that,” Mendoza said of Brazoban, who then allowed two RBI singles that put the Padres ahead.
Brazobán is still enjoying a strong season, but the Mets’ bullpen has been overworked and in search for reinforcements.
About as eventful a game as can be played in July included:
- a scare in the top of the third inning, when Lindor bounced a hard comebacker off the back of Dylan Cease’s head. After a check-in with a trainer and several warmup pitches, the Padres starter remained in the game and faced …
- Juan Soto, who was furious over a 2-1 pitch that appeared outside the strike zone and was called a strike. After Soto was later punched out in the at-bat, he got into the face of Jimenez and had to be separated by a charging-in Mendoza.
“He had a rough night. There’s no way to sugarcoat it,” Mendoza said of Jimenez.
Mendoza was tossed shortly thereafter, having to watch from afar as …
- Vientos smashed a towering fly ball toward right field in the fourth inning. The struggling infielder/DH did, indeed, hit the ball out of the field of play, but it never reached the seats. Tatis waited at the track, timed his leap well and robbed the would-be two-run homer. He could not do so again one inning later, though, when …
- Vientos stepped up to the plate in a moment that reminded of Game 2 of the NLCS, in which the Dodgers intentionally walked Lindor to load the bases for Vientos, and the emerging star then smacked a grand slam.
A season later, and Vientos has rarely looked like the same breakout slugger, but he did as he followed up an intentional walk to Jeff McNeil by demolishing a no-doubt grand slam into the right field seats — too deep even for Tatis to rob — and break open what had been a tie game.
If Vientos were trying to show he should be staying with his current team, his current team’s pitching staff then mounted an argument it should be prioritized at the deadline.
