Mets lose heartbreaker to Cubs after controversial play at plate for final out: ‘Wrong call’

For eight innings, the Mets grew frustrated with bats that would not awaken.

For the final inning, the frustration was redirected to a ruling from the MLB Replay Center that “cost us a game,” manager Carlos Mendoza said.

Pete Alonso was thrown out at the plate in a chaotic finish to a 1-0 loss to the Cubs on Wednesday at Citi Field, where 22,485 fans, one manager and one clubhouse were upset at the league’s interpretation of what constitutes blocking the plate.

MLB teams were sent memos, pictures included, this spring concerning the league’s push to enforce base obstruction.

Those memos, Mendoza said, told catchers that they could not have their foot on the plate without possession of the ball.

Down one run and mounting a rare threat, with runners on second and third in the ninth, Jeff McNeil lifted a fly ball to medium-depth left field.

Ian Happ caught it, threw on a line to third baseman Nick Madrigal, who relayed a dart to catcher Miguel Amaya, who replays showed had his left foot on the plate.

Alonso dove headfirst, his hand hitting the dirt and popping up before touching the plate, perhaps because the catcher’s cleat was on the plate.

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The on-field call was a game-ending double play.

A lengthy review from the Replay Center determined that Amaya’s “setup was legal,” and that Amaya moved on to the plate to receive the incoming throw, which is not a violation.

“That’s bulls–t!” Mendoza yelled on the field in audio that SNY picked up.

Mendoza was told by on-field umpires that the ruling was not theirs and to take it up with the league, which he plans to do.

“It was very clearly that the guy had his left foot on top of the plate without the baseball,” Mendoza said after the Mets (15-15) dropped their seventh game in the past 10. “I think they got the wrong call.”

So did plenty in the Mets’ dugout, including their catcher in the ninth inning.

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Omar Narvaez remembered back to the emails the league sent a few months prior and the teachings that the Mets have done about setting up around the plate.

He was asked if he understood the rule.

“I guess not anymore,” Narvaez said. “We’ve been practicing that since spring training and something not to do happened today, and we didn’t get the call.”

Mendoza plans to talk with the league but acknowledged that the “game’s over.”

Protesting games because of misapplied rules is no longer allowed.

The Mets were inches — or maybe a different replay official — away from tying a game in which they lacked a pulse for eight innings.

Alonso believed he was safe (even without an obstruction call) as he dove home, but Replay Official Derek Thomas “could not definitively determine that the runner contacted home plate prior to catcher applying the tag,” the league said in a statement.

“That’s really not up for me to decide,” Alonso said about the ruling, before speaking delicately about his emotions when he was called out: “Shucks. Darn it.”

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For the first eight innings, the Mets might have uttered “shucks” plenty.

They managed just three hits and one walk in seven innings against Shota Imanaga , who shaved his ERA to 0.78 after six major league starts.

Alonso, in the ninth, was the first Mets base runner to reach third.

Any chances the Mets engineered were wasted on a night they went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, including a pair of strikeouts from Tyrone Taylor and Starling Marte in the eighth with a pair of runners on base.

The Mets were shut out for a third time this season and have scored more than four runs in just one game in their past 10.

They are averaging 2.6 runs per contest in the stretch and have been particularly dreadful recently: They have come up to bat in 26 innings against Cubs pitching and have scored in just three of those frames.

“It’s tough, but it’s the major leagues,” said Alonso, who has not been able to carry the offense. “It can be very difficult. Sometimes their guy throws the ball really well.”

And sometimes you do everything you can to score and watch in anger as a run is erased by the league.

“I’m thinking, game’s tied,” Mendoza said of what was going through his head during the review. “When you watch the scoreboard, it’s very clear. So yeah, it’s frustrating.”

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