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Jorge Castillo, ESPN staff writer
NEW YORK — The New York Mets held a players-only huddle Wednesday night after a 10-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers that included another late bullpen outburst and reliever Jorge Lopez throwing his glove in the stands. is expelled.
The score was tied 3-3 in the eighth inning before the Dodgers scored six times against three relievers. One was Lopez, who took issue with third-base umpire Ramon de Jesus’ ruling on Shohei Ohtani’s check swing.
Lopez surrendered a two-run home run to Ohtani. He continued to argue with De Jesus when he was 3-1 down to Freddie Freeman before the referee sent him off.
As Lopez took off his jersey and threw his glove over the net, he left the field. He showed no remorse after the game.
“No, I’m not upset,” Lopez said.
Lopez continued: “Whatever happened, happened. I’ll be here tomorrow if they want me. I’ll be here no matter what they want me to do. I’m going to keep doing this, you know. I’m healthy. … If they want me to be here. Ready to come tomorrow so I’ll be here.
Lopez labeled the dispute between him and De Jesus a “misunderstanding”.
“Something beyond emotions,” Lopez said, “I don’t give a f—. [about] Nothing.”
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said Lopez had yet to address his behavior when he met with reporters.
“Whenever you go through a stretch like this, you want to see some emotion from the players and anybody here,” Mendoza said. “But what we saw today from the lobby is not acceptable. We will address that here internally.”
Shortstop Francisco Lindor called a players-only meeting, addressing the media in an attempt to turn the team around before Mendoza arrived too late.
After the Dodgers swept the three-game series, the Mets, now 22-33, moved 16 games out of first place in the National League East and six games out of the final wild-card spot. They have lost seven of eight games and 13 of 16. Several losses have included bullpen meltdowns of late, including three against the Dodgers this week.
Lindor said the meeting, which lasted more than 30 minutes, was an opportunity for players to talk and hold each other accountable.
“It’s good for everybody,” Lindor said. “A lot of players have spoken. That’s great. A lot of knowledge has been dropped. Now we just have to put it together.”
The schedule says the Mets have 107 regular season games remaining, but the reality is the team has two months to convince president of baseball operations David Stearns not to sell players before the July 30 trade deadline.
Stearns on Tuesday said the deadline would be “an inflection point in the season.” At the end of the night, the Dodgers swept a doubleheader from the Mets. They beat them again on Wednesday in the worst loss of all.
