Cedric Mullins felt he had a chance.
When the Mets center fielder saw the ball come off of Daylen Lile’s bat in the 11th inning Saturday, his first thought was to go make a play.
But the ball kept carrying until it caromed off the bottom of the Citi Field wall, rolled away from Mullins and settled in center field, allowing Lile to score in the most improbable of fashions.
Lile’s two-run inside-the-park home run proved to be the difference in the Mets’ 5-3 loss to the last-place Washington Nationals.
“It’s more or less an instinctive-type play. Just do what you can,” Mullins said. “I knew what I was trying to do there. Just didn’t execute it.”
It was a potentially costly loss for the Mets, whose lead for the third and final National League wild card spot is down to one game over the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds won Saturday against the Chicago Cubs.
The Mets (80-75) are now 0-66 in games in which they trailed after eight innings.
They had forced extras Saturday by scoring two runs in the eighth inning and another in the ninth, which tied the game, 3-3.
That remained the score when the lefty-swinging Lile came up with a runner on first and one out in the 11th to face Mets submariner Tyler Rogers.
Rogers left a 2-2 sinker in the heart of the plate, and Lile, a 22-year-old rookie, drilled the ball 401 feet to center. Mullins had taken a few steps onto the warning track when Lile’s drive struck the wall.
“We were playing a little shifted over,” Mullins said. “Rogers is a unique pitcher, so the defensive alignment’s a little different. He put a good swing on it. I feel like I got a decent jump. Once I realized that I wasn’t gonna have a play, I tried to stop myself to be able to read it off the wall. It just got up on me pretty quick.”
Rogers had replaced Edwin Diaz, who threw only seven pitches in a 1-2-3 top of the 10th. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said Diaz was unavailable for another inning after he pitched Thursday and warmed up during Friday’s game.
Lile’s game-winner served as the decisive blow on an afternoon filled with miscues and missed opportunities by the Mets.
The Nationals tagged rookie starter Nolan McLean for two unearned runs in the second inning thanks to back-to-back Mets errors.
First, Riley Adams’ single bounded past Juan Soto in right field and rolled to the wall, allowing Dylan Crews to score from first.
Next, Brady House reached on a throwing error by Pete Alonso that McLean had to leap for, causing him to miss first base. That extended the inning, which ultimately allowed Adams to score on a two-out wild pitch.
“We’ve been inconsistent,” Mendoza said of the Mets’ defense. “We go through stretches where we make plays, we play clean, and then we’ve been through stretches where that happens. We don’t have too much time, but the one thing we can do here is turn the page.”
McLean allowed three runs (one earned) over five innings and struck out six. The three runs were the most that McLean has allowed in seven career starts, while the five innings marked his shortest outing. His ERA rose slightly from 1.19 to 1.27.
“Once it’s done, it’s done,” McLean said of settling in after the second inning. “My job as a pitcher is [to] try to go as long as I can, get as many outs as I can, so once it happens, it happens. There’s nothing I can do about it at that moment.”
The Mets didn’t score until the eighth, when pinch-hitter Mark Vientos’ two-out, two-run double against reliever Jose A. Ferrer cut the deficit to 3-2.
Soto tied the game with an RBI single against Ferrer in the ninth, and after an intentional walk to Alonso loaded the bases with one out, the Mets were set up to win.
But Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte struck out against Ferrer, and in the 10th, the Mets failed to score despite having runners on first and second and no outs.
The game ended when Soto, representing the tying run, struck out looking against PJ Poulin with a runner on second in the 11th.
The Mets finished 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position and left 13 men on base.
“Even though we didn’t play a clean game early, guys battled back, and we were in position to win that game right there,” Mendoza said. “We just didn’t do it.”
Sunday afternoon’s series finale against the Nationals is the Mets’ last home game of the regular season. Sean Manaea (2-3, 5.40 ERA) is set to start for the Mets, while Jake Irvin (8-13, 5.76 ERA) is scheduled to pitch for the Nationals.
The Mets will then end the season with a six-game road trip featuring series against the Cubs and Miami Marlins.
“It’s a battle,” Mullins said. “I think at the end of the day, everyone knows that.”
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