Wins are tough to come by for the Mets these days, and they can thank rookie catcher Francisco Álvarez for Wednesday night’s victory over the Cubs.
New York entered the ninth inning clinging to a 4–2 lead over Chicago. Adam Ottovino took the mound to attempt to close things out and allowed a leadoff home run to Seiya Suzuki. After allowing a single and a walk, the Cubs had two runners on with only one out and Ottovino was pulled in favor of Phil Bickford.
A Nick Madrigal bunt advanced the runners to second and third, then Bickford struck out Christopher Morel for the second out. That brought Ian Happ to the plate. A base hit would tie the game and likely put Chicago on top. The tension was building and Bickford was thinking about how to deal with Happ—thinking a little too much about it, in fact.
As the pitch clock ticked down, Álvarez tried to signal to Bickford that time was running out. Just before the clock expired, Álvarez called time and raced to the mound.
Francisco Álvarez is paying attention, man. pic.twitter.com/Iyf8dU3uTQ
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) August 10, 2023
It was a fantastic heads-up play by the rookie to avoid having Bickford charged with an automatic ball in such a crucial situation. Every pitch has an enormous impact that late in the game and a ball would have changed the tenor of the at-bat. Instead, thanks to Álvarez’s awareness, Bickford was able to avoid falling behind in the count and eventually struck Happ out to end the game.
Álvarez is primarily known for his power at the plate (he leads all big league catchers with 21 homers this season), but he’s also an excellent defensive player and has been praised for his game-calling ability. Between that and the quick thinking he showed on Wednesday night, the Mets have plenty of reason to be excited about his future.
