Brett Baty takes the heat after key misplay on  pop-up

By Brett Baty’s own admission, it was a play he needed to make.

When Max Muncy popped up with one out in the top of the ninth inning and runners on second and third, the rookie third baseman began backpedaling. One step and then a second. A third, followed by a fourth, a fifth, a sixth and a seventh. And then he twisted.

Baty took three more steps and dived, only to see the ball bounce off the infield dirt and ricochet off his face. Mookie Betts sprinted home and the Dodgers were on their way to handing Baty and the Mets an unsightly 5-1 loss Saturday night at Citi Field.

“There’s no excuses for that,” said Baty, who was standing at his locker when the clubhouse opened. “Plain and simple.”

Baty explained that he momentarily “took his eye” off the ball, which “had some funky spin on it for sure. Originally I went into foul ground like I was going to catch it [and] looked down to make sure I didn’t hit the base and then it came back into fair territory. And made it worse, too, by diving for it and letting it get away. So that was bad.”

Shortly thereafter, during a pitching change, Francisco Lindor called the infielders together for an impromptu meeting and, according to Baty, told him to communicate in the future. “I,” Baty said, “need to communicate better.”

Still, while Baty mea culpa-ed, Buck Showalter defended the rookie.

“It’s not as easy as it may look,” Showalter said about the misplayed pop-up. “It starts out in foul territory [and] drifts all the way back to where it ended up. When you start moving that hard toward the ball, away from where it starts . . . had a long run there, too.”

All true. So, too, is the fact that it was not exactly what Baty and the Mets hoped for when the organization called up the 23-year-old from Triple-A Syracuse in April, but it did encapsulate their individual and collective 2023 season.

The Mets fell to 42-50 with their fourth straight loss and were booed by the 38,225 in attendance. Along with the error, Baty went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts as his batting average dropped to .238.

But then, not much has gone according to form for either Baty or the Mets in what is fast becoming a lost season.

Baty said he has not been affected by the growing pains he is experiencing.

“I’m going to come in here and be the same guy every single day,” he said. “I’m going to come in here and work really hard and just go out there [on the field] and compete when it’s time.

“I’m not going to let anything [from] the outside make me different from that. So I’m going to come in here and work hard and be the same guy every single day.”