Things had been going too well for Brett Baty.
The Mets third baseman has begun heating up at the plate and has flashed some solid leather at the hot corner, but things took a turn early in the team’s game against the Cardinals in St. Louis on Monday night.
José Fermín led off the bottom of the first inning by hitting a 1-2 pitch from Sean Manaea down the third base line.
Baty chased the ball into foul territory as third base umpire Doug Eddings tried to backpedal out of the way.
He wasn’t able to do so in time as he and Baty’s feet got crossed up, and both went tumbling to the grass as the third baseman tried to leap and make a throw.
Baty ended up landing on top of Eddings — who may have taken a light elbow to the face.
Thankfully, neither appeared injured, and both checked on each other.
It would have been a tough play to throw out Fermin at first even if Baty had played the ball cleanly.
“There no way he was throwing out Fermin anyway,” SNY play-by-play man Gary Cohen said. “But Baty backing off on that ball and Eddings was right there and they both went flying.”
“Oh boy, that’s embarrassing” analyst Keith Hernandez added. “Doug is doing the moonwalk.
The base runner didn’t end up costing the Mets, as Manaea retired the next three batters.
After a lengthy slump, Baty has started to produce at the plate for the Mets again.
Entering Monday, he was hitting .318 with a 991 OPS, two home runs and four RBIs over the past seven games.
