Thumbs up: Baez caps unlikely Mets comeback in resumption

NEW YORK (AP) — Javier Báez sprinted home from first for the game-ending run on Michael Conforto’s single, earning cheers from a fanbase he insulted days earlier in the New York Mets’ 6-5 win over the Miami Marlins on Tuesday.

In the resumption of a game suspended by rain April 11, the Mets scored five runs in the final inning and won it when Báez scored following a Marlins error.

Báez was booed when he entered as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning, hours after apologizing for revealing Sunday that a thumbs-down celebration gesture used recently by the team was dig at fans who have been booing the struggling club recently.

Fans chanted Báez's name when he came up in the ninth with two on, two out and New York trailing 5-3. He beat out an infield single to make it 5-4, drawing an ovation from the sparse afternoon crowd.

Conforto then grounded a single down the third-base line off Dylan Floro (5-5). Báez bolted from first to home when left fielder Jorge Alfaro bobbled the ball. Plate umipre Tim Timmons initally signaled that catcher Alex Jackson had tagged out Báez as he dived across the plate, but then he saw the ball squirt loose and signaled safe instead.

New York's rally started with a two-run homer by Brandon Nimmo.

Jeurys Familia (8-3) threw a perfect top of the ninth.

The resumption of the longest suspended game in baseball history began about an hour after Báez and Lindor held separate press conferences to apologize for the thumbs down gesture they and teammate Kevin Pillar delivered during Sunday’s 9-4 win over the Washington Nationals.

Báez said Sunday the gesture was the players’ way of answering fans who had booed the Mets throughout August, during which New York has gone 8-19 (not counting Tuesday’s game, which officially counts as an April 11 result) to...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Thumbs-up-Baez-caps-unlikely-Mets-comeback-in-16426327.php