Yan surrenders walk-off HR to White Sox moments after premature leap

CHICAGO -- Jefry Yan jumped, his signature celebration in full flight. But as it turned out, there was nothing to celebrate. For the second time in a week, Yan rejoiced in what he thought was a strikeout, only to have the pitch be called a ball. This time though, it burned the Mets in the ninth inning of a walk-off, 6-4 loss to the White Sox on Friday night at Rate Field.

It was a sequence the Mets would rather not see happen again.

“Certainly, Jefry will learn not to jump before the play is over,” interim manager Andy Green said. “That’s something he’s still working through. I think the emotions of the moment got him there.”

The pitch in question came on a 1-2 count to Colson Montgomery, who took a slider just below the zone. As soon as the ball hit catcher Francisco Alvarez’s mitt, Yan leaped in the air, arms and legs splayed in the type of celebratory posture that made him a viral sensation throughout his Minor League career. But home-plate umpire Ramon De Jesus correctly called the pitch a ball, forcing Yan to recover and continue the plate appearance. Yan’s next two pitches were balls as well, resulting in a leadoff walk.

Three batters later, Jake Rogers redirected a 98.1 mph fastball over the left-center-field fence to end the game.

“It’s the first homer that I’ve given up in the Major Leagues, and it’s one of those things where you just have to learn from it, you have to learn how to execute a little bit better,” Yan said through an interpreter. “But I wouldn’t say that [the premature celebration] affected me mentally in any way.”

Green also didn’t believe that Yan’s jump led to the walk of Montgomery or the home run pitch to Rogers. Still, it’s not something he wants to see again -- particularly after Yan did the same thing last Saturday against the Nationals. In that game, Yan jumped to celebrate what he thought was a strikeout, before unsuccessfully challenging the pitch.

Though Yan ultimately recovered to strike out Nasim Nuñez in a walk-off win for the Mets, Green indicated that at some point following that game, Mets officials spoke with him about the sequence.

Six days later, Yan committed an identical sin.

“His rookie year, learning, growing through it, brings a lot of enthusiasm,” Green said. “Certainly, we’ve encouraged him very strongly to wait till the play is over before that. I think the emotions of the moment got to him.”

Compounding the misery for the Mets was the fact that for most of Friday evening, they were in control. Through five innings, starter Sean Manaea was mostly untouchable. But Manaea allowed back-to-back-to-back homers to Miguel Vargas, Randal Grichuk and Montgomery in the sixth, erasing what had been a four-run lead. The teams then traded zeros until Yan served up a walk-off in the ninth.

“For sure, that’s one of those situations where it becomes a learning experience,” Yan said. “You can’t go out there and kind of lose the goal, which is to execute the pitches.”

To be clear, the Mets have no problem with Yan’s celebrations in general. Upon calling up the 29-year-old rookie earlier this month, Green -- the Mets’ former farm director -- noted that opponents in the Minors knew all about Yan’s antics and tended not to take umbrage at them. To the contrary, Green and others praised the joy with which Yan plays the game.

“I mean, it’s one of those things where if he strikes you out, you probably don’t like it,” Montgomery said. “If I would have struck out there, I would have been pretty mad. If you get on or get a hit, you don’t think about it.”

From the Mets’ perspective, revelry simply loses its luster when it does not follow actual success. It’s a lesson the left-hander believes he has learned.

“It won’t happen again,” Yan said. “The plan is to execute the pitches, and then once the job is done, you can celebrate the way that you want to.”