From the D-backs’ POV: How the ninth inning unraveled in loss to Mets

After leading 3-1 with two outs in the ninth inning, the Arizona Diamondbacks unraveled and lost 5-3 to the New York Mets.

Manager Torey Lovullo, closer Brad Boxberger and catcher Alex Avila take you through their point of view of the ninth inning collapse.

Lovullo: You play a perfect game, really, a very good game for eight innings, and then you go into the last inning and unfortunately you don’t close it out.

Boxberger: Sure, the first two (outs), and everything was going well.

Lovullo: He gets the first two outs, and does a really nice job of pressing his fastball in there, and following that up with the change that he loves and throws so effectively.

Mets shortstop Jose Reyes bunted the ball down the third-base line. It looked like it may be rolling foul, but Avila grabbed it.

Avila: He made a perfect bunt. The ball was kind of just dead there in the grass. I was going to try to make a bare-handed play, and as soon as I turned around, best to eat it.

Boxberger: There was the potential to go foul, but Alex made the decision to get the ball and try to make the play, so that’s what happens.

Avila: You just react. That’s really it. Sometimes if you’re out there, I felt like I had a pretty good jump on it, that I read it to where it was just going to stay right there on the grass, make a play on it, but it was too good of a bunt.

Lovullo: From my vantage point,I can’t tell you what my angle is … Instinctually, I know that it’s a play that you just trust what your eyes are telling you … I feel like our catchers know the area, they know their space, and he picked it up for a good reason.

Boxberger: (The) bunt single kind of threw off the rhythm a little bit.

Jose Bautista pinch-hit for the Mets with two outs and Reyes on base.

Lovullo: I just feel like there was a mistake to Bautista. (Boxberger) had thrown a fastball up around the chest and beat him, and felt like he was in control of the at-bat. And then he just threw a fastball out over the plate and Jose’s a very good hitter, especially in those types of moments. He stood on it and drove it over the right fielder’s head.

Boxberger: Got Bautista to hit a fly ball and it just kept carrying away from Jon Jay out there.

Bautista drove home a run with his double.

Left fielder Brandon Nimmo stepped to the plate. He has hurt the D-backs all week, finishing the series with six hits and two home runs.

Avila: He made a good first pitch to Nimmo, and trying to go back to same spot, just kind of pulled that changeup over the plate and he put a good swing on it.

Lovullo: You try not to duplicate pitches to (Nimmo), and I think we threw too many pitches in the same spot, and he dug it out and hit a home run.

Boxberger: Just pulled a changeup right into his barrel, so, I just gotta make a better pitch, and then we wouldn’t be standing here.

Lovullo: By that time, we were all pretty much in shock about what happened, and then before you open your eyes, the next batter hit a home run.

Nimmo had given the Mets a one-run lead, but New York wasn’t done. Second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera hit a home run on the next at-bat.

Boxberger: (It) was a good pitch to Cabrera, he was just on it.

Instead of winning the series over the struggling New York Mets, the teams split the series.

The D-backs, who have now won seven of their last nine games, weren’t able to win their third consecutive series.

They left for Los Angeles after the game to take on the Angels tomorrow.

Boxberger: I sucked today and tomorrow’s a new day, and I could be great tomorrow. I just got to go out and get my work in tomorrow before the game and be ready to go.

Lovullo: “You’re expecting a totally different conclusion before you get on the plane, but unfortunately, that’s what makes this game so great. It’s heartbreaking, it’s rewarding, it’s fulfilling, and we experience all those emotions – sometimes all in one game – but when it ends the way it did today, it is tough. But I know we have a very resilient, tough group. I know these guys are going to digest what happened and come out ready to play tomorrow.”

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