Carlos Beltran admitted he goofed yesterday on the basepaths.
TONIGHT’S PREVIEW: Marlins at Mets
In the Mets’ 8-1 loss to the Nationals, Beltran committed a blunder that involved his being wrong on multiple fronts.
In the third inning, with two outs and David Wright at the plate, Beltran tried to steal second. But maybe 15 or 20 feet from the base, he stopped running hard and didn’t slide. He was caught on the attempt, a bizarre play on which something looked amiss.
As it turned out, Beltran mis-heard what he thought was the ball being hit. And he also acknowledged he messed up by not sliding.
“I heard contact with the bat and I went to look at where the ball was,” he said. “Basically I got surprised at second base. It was a mistake. I know that I should slide right there.”
Mets manager Jerry Manuel agreed, saying, “I told him in that situation he has to slide, regardless. You’ve got to get down, and he understood that.”
Beltran said it was the first time that’s happened to him in his career — but it’s actually the second base-running problem he’s had in the past week.
In St. Louis last Tuesday, he went into home plate standing up and was tagged out.
Beltran said that the sound he heard yesterday — which he thought was the ball hitting the bat — actually was the ball hitting the catcher’s glove.
He added, “Basically I was stopping to go back to first base because I didn’t see the ball. Basically I got surprised.”