Castillo’s clanger costs the Mets

When I wrote about Milton Bradley’s balls-up yesterday evening (British time), I fully expected he would be the goat of the day despite there being a further fourteen games to be played later that night.

How wrong I was.

Luis Castillo’s clanger on a pop-up would have been a bad mistake if it had come in the first inning of a standard game.  To do it when leading 8-7 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth against the Yankees in a subway series game, allowing them to win it 9-8, is a blunder of epic proportions.

Why didn’t he use two hands? Why did he throw to second base rather than home plate? Did he get out of Yankee Stadium alive?  Those are just three of the many questions that immediately spring to mind (I’m assuming the answer to the third is ‘yes’ as I’ve not seen any ‘Mets infielder mauled by enraged fans’ news stories yet).

People often like to exaggerate the impact of a single moment in a game or to pin the outcome of an entire contest onto one person.  Normally that isn’t a very accurate way to sum up a game, but in this case it’s fully justified. 

Castillo’s error was the reason the Mets lost and nobody knows that better than Castillo himself. 

The New York press will have a field day with this.  The reaction of Mets fans on the web is predictably furious and Castillo is undoubtedly going to be mercilessly heckled (or plain verbally abused) by Yankee fans at today’s game.  Professional sportsmen have to deal with such pressures on a regular basis, but this is going to be a tough day for Castillo.

Let’s see how he responds.  Jerry Manuel has a decision to make on whether he sends him straight back out there.  He’ll know Castillo’s character and should be able to judge if he’s the sort of person who would cope better by taking a day out of the firing line or meeting the situation head on. 

It’s a day game at Yankee Stadium, so British baseball fans can join their North American counterparts (and other fans around the world) by following the action at a convenient hour.  First pitch is set for 21.10 British Summer Time.

It promises to be quite an occasion.