The Mets’ five-run comeback fell short in 10 innings, and afterward, Fernando Tatis was still kicking himself for his base-running gaffe in the seventh.
With two outs, the bases loaded and the Mets having already scored twice to cut the Marlins’ lead to three, David Wright seemed poised to get them even closer.
But the first pitch from Yankee castoff Jose Veras was a high fastball that John Baker couldn’t handle and Tatis tried to score from third as Baker scrambled after the ball.
A terrific throw from Baker to Veras, who raced home just in front of Tatis, prevented that from happening and ended the inning.
“I [thought] I was gonna make it,” Tatis said after the Mets’ 7-6 loss last night at Citi Field. “It’s something we’ve been working on all spring, to be aggressive. But it was my mistake. I thought the ball would go a little more away and I got thrown out. That’s my mistake with David at the plate, definitely.”
The Mets came back to score three in the eighth to tie the game at 6-6, anyway.
Tatis added an RBI walk that scored — and bailed out — Jason Bay, who, in a base-running blunder of his own, failed to score on Rod Barajas’ fly ball to left — even though the Marlins’ Chris Coghlan made an errant throw.
But that contribution to a late rally provided little consolation for Tatis, who remained unhappy with himself.
“With David at the plate, I have to make sure I can score,” Tatis said. “That situation might change the whole game. David might hit a double, a base hit and we tie the game.”
Tatis had a point. The Marlins were falling apart in the seventh and the docile Citi Field crowd had some life.
That was especially true after Tatis delivered his pinch-hit single to keep the inning going with two outs, Alex Cora followed by getting hit by a pitch and Luis Castillo walked, bringing up Wright.
And one ugly pitch later, the inning was over.
“He just misread it, unfortunately,” manager Jerry Manuel said.
Of course, if Baker didn’t make a perfect toss to Veras, the play wouldn’t have looked so bad.
“In that situation, you just cannot be overaggressive and I was overaggressive,” Tatis said. “But he made a great play. It was unbelievable.”
For the Mets, who are trying to erase memories from 2009, it was all too believable.