DENVER -- The Mets were 10 outs from a sweep of the Rockies and a 5-1 record on their current road trip out West, which concludes with a weekend series against the D-backs in Arizona.
But the Rockies’ Jake McCarthy had other ideas. It was McCarthy’s game-tying double with two outs in the sixth and his grand slam off reliever Craig Kimbrel in the eighth that sunk New York in a 6-2 loss at Coors Field on Thursday afternoon.
The decisive blow -- McCarthy’s slam -- went over the foul pole in right field. To the naked eye, it seemed too close to call. But a call had to be made, and according to first-base umpire John Libka, it was fair. Upon a crew-chief review, the call stood.
“It was close,” said Mets manager Carlos Mendoza. “Especially from our angle, I couldn't tell. And whatever they called on the field, I was pretty sure it was going to stand. And we called down and [replay analyst] Harrison [Friedland] said the same thing -- there's not an angle there where you could really tell whether it was fair or foul, and it just didn't go our way there."
“I was hoping it was foul, but after they called it fair and after looking at it, they decided it was a home run,” said Kimbrel, who had allowed only one grand slam over his 17-year MLB career to that point (Max Muncy’s walk-off shot on May 3, 2023, while Kimbrel was with the Phillies).
McCarthy dropped the bat upon launching Kimbrel’s fastball, which leaked low and in. McCarthy appeared to be confident that it had the distance, walking and watching until he was almost to first base, then beginning his trot after Libka’s emphatic call.
But as was the case with the Mets, he couldn’t be sure.
“It looked fair at the beginning, and then it took like a hard hook at the end,” McCarthy said. “ … So I kind of took my time up the line, but I was really just trying to see if it's fair.”
After crossing home plate, McCarthy donned the Rockies’ purple faux fur coat, a home run celebration they established last month. But with the result in question, he was ready to shed the celebratory garb.
“Did it stand, or was it confirmed?” McCarthy asked. “ … I said, ‘Get this off me, because I might have to hit again.’”
McCarthy didn’t have to hit again, and the Mets didn’t really hit much at all.
Things were looking good early. New York scored twice in the second inning thanks to an Andy Ibáñez sacrifice fly and a Tyrone Taylor RBI single. But that would be all the Mets could muster in the hitter-friendly environment of Coors.
Starter Christian Scott gave New York 4 2/3 strong innings, yielding one run on three hits and two walks and striking out six.
With Scott at 82 pitches (53 strikes), Mendoza went to his bullpen after a walk to Edouard Julien in the fifth. Mendoza cited the pitch count, since the Mets are being careful with Scott after he missed all of 2025 recovering from Tommy John surgery.
“I respect the decision,” Scott said. “Obviously, coming third time through the order and you have a lead there and you obviously want to hold it. I left those pitches arm-side for the four-pitch walk there, but I respect the decision.”
The decision to go to Kimbrel in the eighth was based on Mendoza’s confidence in the veteran right-hander after he posted scoreless outings in seven of his eight appearances entering Thursday.
Mendoza also wanted to stay away from others who pitched Wednesday. In particular, the struggles of Tobias Myers and Sean Manaea, as well as the usage of Luke Weaver and Devin Williams, factored into the calculus.
“It’s part of it,” Mendoza said. “We had to use a lot of our guys, and some of them weren’t available today. … I’m not going to blame [Thursday’s loss] on them. We had our chances today, and we couldn’t add on there.”
They say baseball is a game of inches. On Thursday, the Mets lived out that maxim in a painful way.
Not only with McCarthy’s slam, but in the moments leading up to it.
“With first and third, I was just trying to get a strikeout,” Kimbrel said. “And I felt like I did. Felt like [Willi Castro] went on the check swing, and it turned into a ball. Which turned into a grand slam.”