What was mostly a celebratory night for the New York Mets took an unfortunate turn just as the action was cooling off.
The Mets took down the Seattle Mariners 7-3 in Williamsport, Pa., in the latest installment of Major League Baseball’s Little League Classic. Playing in front of a neutral crowd mostly full of youth baseball players and their families, New York captured its first series win since July 27 in San Francisco.
However, after leading off the bottom of the seventh inning with a double, catcher Francisco Alvarez jammed his right thumb into the base. He remained in the game to run the bases, but was replaced by Luis Torrens to begin the top of the eighth.
Alvarez would be a huge loss for this Mets team. He had three hits on the night, and since being recalled from Triple-A on July 21, he’s batting .323 with a 1.054 OPS in 21 games.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after the game that he hoped the 23-year-old would avoid an injury absence, but he flew back to New York to get an MRI nonetheless. The Mets’ next game is Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
“Right now, we don’t know what we’re dealing with, but we just got to wait,” Mendoza said, per Theo DeRosa of MLB.com.
Torrens has been better than expected throughout his time in a Mets uniform, but Alvarez is a different caliber of hitter when he’s on point, and lately, he’s been one of the catalysts of the team.
Mendoza was also quick to acknowledge his concern over the fact that Alvarez has missed time with injuries to his other hand on two separate occasions.
“Concerning, I’m not going to lie, you know, because that’s like, the third time,” Mendoza said, per DeRosa. “But I’m not going to sit here and speculate, because we don’t know what we’re dealing with.”
The Mets are hoping they started crawling out of their slump over the weekend, but losing Alvarez would threaten to stall such momentum.
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