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ESPN — and usual Orioles — announcer Kevin Brown took a dig at the Mets’ high-priced trio of Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor and Bo Bichette for letting a routine fly ball drop in for a leadoff double in the second inning of the Orioles’ 7-1 win that completed a three-game sweep at Citi Field.
That hit had an expect batting average of .010, according to Baseball Savant, and led to an unfortunate earned run for Xzavion Curry when he allowed a two-run homer two batters later to make it a 3-0 game.
“The ball will drop,” Brown said as Citi Field fans began booing. “Lindor, Bichette and Soto, about a billion-dollars worth of Mets out in left field and none of ’em could pick it up.”
If we want to get technical, the trio of Mets that converged on the play actually are worth at least $1.232 billion.
Juan Soto’s historic $765 million pact spanning 15 years can reach $805 million with incentives, Lindor’s deal is worth $341 million over 10 years and Bo Bichette signed a three-year, $126 million deal last offseason that he may opt out of this offseason.
On said play, Christian Encarnacion-Strand lofted a lazy fly ball to left that floated toward the foul line, bringing Soto, Bichette and Lindor all toward that part of the field.
Soto ran in facing forward, Bichette tracked the ball with his shoulder facing the plate and Lindor ran toward the ball diagonally.
Lindor eventually began looking down and up, seemingly making sure he did not run into Bichette, who ducked at the last minute.
Soto ran hard at first before letting up and seemed to be looking at Bichette before the ball dropped right in front of him. He picked up the ball on a bounce and fired late to second base.
ESPN color analyst Eduardo Perez put the blame on Lindor.
“Originally, I thought this was Francisco Lindor’s ball,” said Perez, while former catcher David Ross agreed with that sentiment. “Once you go out as a third baseman, Bichette is waiting to hear Francisco Lindor and right there it seemed like he did hear something, maybe not Lindor, but you anticipate it.
“Never did Bichette call it and as a third baseman you’re not supposed to, and the only one that can override in all of this would be Soto on left field.”
Jeremiah Jackson homered two batters later to give the Orioles a 3-0 lead, and they boosted that edge to 6-0 in the second inning to send the Mets to a fourth straight loss and five in six games.
Mets manager Andy Green described the ball that fell in as a “triangle play that happens in baseball.”
“I think it was one of those plays where everybody looked at each other expecting the other person to make the play,” Green said, “and just didn’t authoritative take on that play.”
