The circus was in town during the ninth inning at Citi Field.
After the Mets had rallied for four runs in the eighth inning to cut their deficit to two, they erased any thoughts of a comeback with an ugly fielding display.
Gunnar Henderson lofted a soft line drive to left field.
Brandon Nimmo made an awkward dive and got his glove on the ball, but couldn’t make the play.
Throwing errors by Nimmo and reliever Danny Young directly followed, allowing two runs to score in the Orioles’ 9-5 victory on Tuesday night.
“We got back in the game and we gave it back right away,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We just got to stop the play. Nimmo makes an attempt at a diving play — can’t make the play. Then we throw the ball to home plate. At that point, we just got to stop the play. Once you start throwing the ball all over the place, it’s not a good thing.”
Nimmo, after missing a game with a jammed right shoulder, was hoping to avoid laying out.
He faulted himself, saying it was a ball he should catch. The one silver lining is that the shoulder felt fine.
“I was trying to get down as soft as I could,” he said. “I was trying to be as safe as I could, and that’s usually when mistakes happen. … It’s unfortunate. I feel terrible about it for Danny [Young]. He did his job on getting weak contact there. We’d love to have come up with that play.”
The Orioles placed Wednesday’s scheduled starter Zach Eflin (right shoulder inflammation) on the 15-day injured list on Tuesday. Left-hander Cole Irvin (4.85 ERA) is expected to make the start in Eflin’s place.
Right-handed reliever Dedniel Nunez (right pronator strain) threw a scoreless inning for Triple-A Syracuse. He struck out one and allowed one hit.
Starling Marte was given the night off after starting the previous two games.
The Mets plan to bring him along slowly after he missed nearly two months with a bone bruise in his right knee.
Christian Scott (strained UCL) is long-tossing at 105 feet.
The plan is for him to get up to 120 feet before getting on the mound.
