It only took four games for Buck Showalter to end up back in a situation where he made a decision that backfired and could easily be second-guessed.
Headed to the bottom of the eighth with a 2-1 lead in Sunday’s series finale with the Nationals, Showalter went to Trevor Williams – and not set-up man Trevor May, who was also warmed up during the game – to protect the lead and try to get the Mets three outs closer to a four-game sweep.
Williams allowed three runs, the Nats took a 4-2 lead that they held onto, and Showalter was left to explain himself after the game.
“Trevor (Williams) needed to pitch today, and he was going to pitch,” Buck said, also noting that Chasen Shreve, who had gotten the previous four outs, was also pitching no matter the situation. “Can’t let them go four, five, six, seven days into the season (without pitching). They pitched well, both of them."
While it’s good, in a sense, that Showalter didn’t want to go too long without utilizing all of the arms in his bullpen, it was a curious decision to remain on a schedule in a game where the Mets were nursing a one-run lead, given that closer Edwin Diaz hadn’t pitched in the previous two games and several other higher-leverage hurlers were seemingly available.
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Not a question Buck was fond of answering, it seems.
“Go to who? Some guys were unavailable today…well, I don’t know if unavailable is the word, I wasn’t going to use them,” Showalter said. “We’re too early in the season to be throwing guys three out of four days. We said the whole offseason with the lockout and everything that we’re going to be careful.”
The Mets had three relievers appear twice in the first three games of the series – Seth Lugo, Adam Ottavino, and Drew Smith, who pitched the last two games in a row – but May, like Diaz, hadn’t pitched since Thursday, and Joely Rodriguez was also a possibility given the three hitters due up being a lefty, a righty, and a switch-hitter.
Instead, Showalter left in Shreve to face Hernandez, who was up when Josh Bell was caught stealing to end the seventh, and after Hernandez singled, Williams surrendered three runs (two charged to him, one to Shreve) including a two-out, two-run single by Nelson Cruz.
To be fair, he didn’t get much help from his defense, especially first baseman Pete Alonso, whose made a curious underhand flip to home on Lucius Fox’s squeeze bunt that was unable to get pinch-runner Dee Strange-Gordon at the plate with the tying run, then threw a possible double-play ball wide of Francisco Lindor to instead load the bases, leading to Cruz’s game-winning single.
“Bang-bang play at home, and I thought I made the right decision. If I were to throw it, I feel like it would be too quick and too close of a distance,” Alonso said. “On the double play ball, I just missed the throw. Don’t know why, my feet were set, I fielded the ball cleanly, and there was no need to rush. I felt like I was calm, cool and collected. I just missed the throw and kinda put the team in a really bad hole.”
The rough eighth spoiled a strong first start from Carlos Carrasco, who threw 5 2/3 innings of one-run, two-hit ball, and retired the final 15 he faced in a row after Cruz’s solo homer and a Josh Bell single came back-to-back with two outs in the first.
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