The slider, the one Vladimir Guerrero sent into the left field bullpen for the game-winning homer yesterday at Shea, was supposed to be in the dirt.
New Met reliever Scott Strickland knows his ex-teammate, Guerrero. Next time, he vows to put the slider too low to hit. Yesterday, however, Strickland just looked like all the Mets when they had gloves on.
“It was just bad execution,” Strickland said after yesterday’s 9-8 11-inning Mets’ loss to the Expos at sunny Shea.
“Bad execution” defined yesterday’s nearly four-hour game. The Mets’ committed five errors, upping their major-league leading total to 19. Three-time Gold Glover Rey Ordonez had a hat trick of Es by himself.
John Valentin made an error at first you don’t expect to see in a major-league park. All six third-inning runs starter Al Leiter gave up were unearned.
Despite the miscues, the Mets showed resiliency.
Down 7-0 after four, they were hitless against Javier Vazquez. But Vance Wilson’s three-run homer in the fifth and Jeromy Burnitz’ seventh inning solo shot gave Valentin the chance to switch from goat to hero.
Valentin, who committed the most embarrassing of the three third-inning errors (cutting off the throw to first on a routine grounder), came through in the seventh with a two-run single through the hole on the left side. Incredibly, it gave the Mets an 8-7 lead.
“We just couldn’t close the deal,” Bobby Valentine said.
The Expos tied it in the eighth. Then, with one out and two men on in the bottom of the ninth, a hard-fought 10-pitch at-bat against Matt Herges ended in Valentin popping out to third. Roberto Alomar followed by grounding out to second.
In their effort to come back, the Mets ran out of players, forcing Steve Trachsel to pinch-hit for the first time in his big league career. Up with one out in the 11th after Guerrero’s homer had given Montreal the lead, Trachsel grounded out before Herges struck out Joe McEwing to end it.
The Mets’ comeback was impressive after the abomination that was the third.
After a walk and an out, Leiter tried to nail the runner at second on a sacrifice bunt. He spun and threw to the left field side of second, pulling Ordonez off the bag. Leiter curled his left hand into a fist, grimacing in frustration.
Next, with runners on first and second, Bergeron bunted back to Leiter. This time Leiter chose the easy out.
Alomar covered first. Simple play, right? Well, yeah, except for the cutoff man.
Inexplicably, Valentin, playing first for the first time in his career, snagged the throw on the edge of the infield grass. After two RBI singles and a Guerrero strikeout, the bases were loaded for Andres Galarraga, who owned a .348 average in 23 at-bats against Leiter entering the game.
This time, Galarraga smashed a bases-clearing double down the left field line, then scored the sixth run on a Michael Barrett single.
Afterward, the Mets tried to explain what had happened and why their defense has been so bad. Valentine theorized his team is just going through a bad period.
Valentin had no answers for his play, but, when he described his day, he could have been talking about the team’s.
“It’s a roller coaster,” Valentin said.