Buck Showalter ejected, Mets' late rally comes up short in loss to Reds

CINCINNATI — Buck Showalter didn’t blame the umpires for the Mets’ 7-6 loss to the Reds on Tuesday night. 

But he did blame them for blowing a key call that enabled a rally that wound up being the difference in the game. 

In the bottom of the fifth, with one out and a runner on first, Kevin Newman bounced a grounder toward second base. Shortstop Francisco Lindor came in front of the bag to field it. A sliding Wil Myers, who was running with the pitch and therefore closing in on second, slapped Lindor’s glove as the ball rolled away.

Everybody was safe — except for Showalter, who earned the first ejection of his Mets career for arguing about the play. After the umpires convened to discuss the sequence but stuck with the initial ruling, a red-faced Showalter refused to relent, eventually getting kicked out by third-base umpire Mark Wegner. 

Showalter held four fingers in Wegner’s face before leaving the field. 

“Imagine four guys not being able to see what happened. There’s about three ways you can get that play right,” Showalter said. “Obviously, they were wrong. There were ways to make it not matter. We didn’t do it.” 

Lindor said he was 90% sure Myers’ hand hit the ball in addition to his glove, which also would have meant he was out. 

“There’s two plays in that situation: There’s [runner’s] interference because it’s my lane and No. 2, the ball hit him. They didn’t see either of them,” Lindor said. “I can’t blame the umpires for getting that call wrong, even though they got it wrong, because the game is going very fast. So get help from the cameras, slow the game down and see if there’s a way of making the right call . . . There’s a replay system in place. Why not use it?” 

That play was not eligible for review.

“Did we lose the game because of it?” Lindor said. “I’m not sure.” 

Plenty else went wrong for the Mets, who have dropped three consecutive games, six of seven and 12 of 15. They are 17-19. 

Cincinnati (15-20) scored three runs after the controversial call. TJ Friedl tripled to drive in a pair, then crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly by Jonathan India. 

Lefthander David Peterson — pitching in place of Max Scherzer, who was scratched because of neck spasms — lasted just 3 1/3 innings, allowing four runs. The Reds’ Luke Weaver, a 29-year-old journeyman righthander with a career 4.90 ERA, smothered the Mets most of his outing but wound up allowing four runs in six innings (plus two batters). Francisco Alvarez homered twice, Pete Alonso once. 

When the Mets cut a six-run deficit to a lone run, bench coach Eric Chavez — running the game in Showalter’s absence — used light-hitting utility infielder Luis Guillorme as a pinch hitter for Mark Canha in a bases-loaded, two-out spot in the eighth. 

Guillorme struck out against Alexis Diaz, brother of Edwin, who recorded the final four outs for the save. 

An inning prior, with the bases loaded and nobody out, Canha had grounded into a double play. 

“You can’t keep blowing opportunities and not coming through when you need to come through and expect to get more and more opportunities,” Canha said. “Your opportunities are going to shrink, obviously. So I wasn’t surprised to be yanked. I wanted that at-bat, I’ll say that. I wanted to be up there for that at-bat. I wanted it more than anything.” 

By Tim Healey

timothy.healey@newsday.com@timbhealey

Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.