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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — The New York Mets held a players-only team meeting Wednesday night after getting swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 10-3 loss that included another late-inning bullpen implosion and reliever Jorge Lopez throwing his glove into his stands after being ejected.
The score was tied at 3 heading into the eighth inning before the Dodgers scored six times off three relievers. One was Lopez, who surrendered a two-run home run to Shohei Ohtani, then fell behind 3-1 to Freddie Freeman before taking issue with third-base umpire Ramon De Jesus’ ruling on a check swing. The argument earned Lopez an ejection.
Lopez untucked his jersey and threw his glove over the netting into the crowd as he walked off the field. He did not display any remorse after the game.
“No, I don’t regret it,” Lopez said.
Lopez continued: “Whatever happened, happened. I’ll be here tomorrow if they want me. Whatever they want to do. I’m going to keep doing this thing, you know. I’m healthy. … I’m ready to come back tomorrow if they want me to be here. So I’ll be here.”
Lopez labeled the dispute between him and De Jesus a “misunderstanding.”
“Just something out of emotions,” Lopez said, “I just don’t give a f— [about] anything.”
After the game, the Mets began the process of designating Lopez for assignment, according to The Associated Press. They will have seven days to trade or release him, or send him outright to the minors.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he had not yet talked to Lopez about his behavior when he met with reporters.
“Whenever you’re going through a stretch like this, you want to see some emotions from players, anybody in here,” Mendoza said. “But what we saw today out of Lopey, that’s not acceptable. And we will address that internally here.”
Shortstop Francisco Lindor called for the players-only meeting while Mendoza addressed the media in attempt to rally the team to reverse course.
The Mets, now 22-33, are 16 games out of first place in the National League East and six games out of the final wild-card spot. They have dropped seven of eight games and 13 of 16. Several of the defeats, including two of the three against the Dodgers this week, included bullpen meltdowns late.
Lindor said the meeting, which lasted over 30 minutes, was an opportunity for players to speak up and hold one another accountable. It also came after the team placed closer Edwin Diaz on the injured list with a shoulder impingement earlier Wednesday, then lost slugger Pete Alonso to a hand injury after he was hit by a pitch against L.A.
“It was good for everybody,” Lindor said. “A lot of players talked. That’s really good. A lot of knowledge was dropped. Now we just got to put it together.”
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 to not trade players before the July 30 deadline. Stearns on Tuesday said the deadline will be “an inflection point in the season.”
Source: www.espn.com