Jeff McNeil’s reward for his four-hit performance the previous day was a spot on the Mets bench Sunday.
With lefty Patrick Corbin pitching for the Nationals, manager Mickey Callaway opted to overload his starting lineup with right-handers, excluding McNeil. That meant J.D. Davis returning to third base with Keon Broxton in center field. Callaway said Sunday’s lineup was decided days in advance.
“Getting four hits [Saturday] is never an indicator of how a person is going to do today,” Callaway said before the Mets’ 6-5 loss to the Nationals. “That’s just how numbers work, and if he had been a righty he would have been playing.
“Corbin, breaking ball, looking for chase. Just because McNeil got four hits [Saturday] doesn’t mean that is going to happen again against a person that is totally different. We always take what they did the day before into account as well, but I don’t think it’s a great predictor.”
McNeil entered as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning and struck out against lefty Sean Doolittle.
Wilson Ramos was also on the bench, mostly because of concern about the amount of time he spent on the bases a day earlier, which included legging out an infield hit. On Sunday, Ramos delivered a pinch-hit RBI single in the eighth before getting drilled with a foul ball off the knee behind the plate, but as the only remaining catcher he remained in the game.
Broxton finished 2-for-2 with a walk and two stolen bases in his first start for the Mets.