Taylor-Made Catch Earns Praise, Hugs

Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso and Starling Marte homered, but the most excitement in Tuesday night’s 8-3 victory over Arizona came when David Peterson pitched a 1-2-3 fourth inning.

Randal Grichuk led off by hitting a shot to third that deflected off a diving Mark Vientos‘ glove to Lindor, who smoothly backhanded the ball and threw to first for the out.

Up next was Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who drove the ball to left center, a good idea since Tyrone Taylor was shaded to right center. With Tom Hanks in attendance, it was time for “Run, Tyrone, Run.” Taylor gave chase and made a backhanded, diving catch and appeared to mouth “wow” after he got to his feet.

“I shocked myself a little bit,” he joked with reporters after the game.

Peterson, who threw five innings of one-run ball to improve his record to 2-1 and lower his ERA to 3.06, appreciated the catch so much that he hugged Taylor three times.

“Yeah I gave him one right after and then I think I gave him another as I left the dugout and then after the game,” he told reporters. “It was unbelievable to see him leave his feet and go full extension and get to that ball.

“When he hit it I was watching the ball and I saw Tyrone get his break and … out of the corner of my eye the whole time I was like, ‘OK is he gonna get there? He might get there. It’s getting really close. Holy crap he got there.’ So yeah, it was awesome.”

“That Taylor play,” Carlos Mendoza said, “was unbelievable. When that ball went up I’m looking at Taylor where he started I was like no way he’s gonna get there. And before you know it he’s diving for it and makes a ridiculous play.”

The defense had one more encore.

Eugenio Suarez hit a shot to the hole at short that took a high hop. Lindor speared it, threw to first and ended the inning to the cheers of 35,218 at Citi Field. The Mets (21-9) are 13-1 at home.

“That inning right there is what you call a big league defensive inning,” Mendoza said.

“It was a good defensive inning all around,” said Taylor, who also went 2-for-4 with a double, two RBIs and a run. “That was a crazy play, the assist from Mark to Lindor and then (Lindor) making that line drive short hop look easy. It was a good day all around for us. Good team win.”

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