Report: Reeling Mets to cut Lopez after ejection
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — The Mets held a players-only team meeting Wednesday night after getting swept by the Dodgers with a 10-3 loss that included another late-inning bullpen implosion and reliever Jorge Lopez throwing his glove into his stands after being ejected.
The score was tied at 3 heading into the eighth inning before the Dodgers scored six times off three relievers. One was Lopez, who surrendered a two-run homer to Shohei Ohtani then fell behind 3-1 to Freddie Freeman before taking issue with third-base umpire Ramon De Jesus’ ruling on a check swing. The argument earned Lopez an ejection.
Lopez untucked his jersey and threw his glove over the netting into the crowd as he walked off the field. He did not display any remorse after the game.
“No, I don’t regret it,” Lopez said.
Lopez continued: “Whatever happened, happened. I’ll be here tomorrow if they want me. Whatever they want to do. I’m going to keep doing this thing, you know. I’m healthy. … I’m ready to come back tomorrow if they want me to be here. So I’ll be here.”
Lopez labeled the dispute between him and De Jesus a “misunderstanding.”
“Just something out of emotions,” Lopez said, “I just don’t give a f— [about] anything.”
After the game, the Mets began the process of designating Lopez for assignment, according to The Associated Press. They will have seven days to trade or release him, or send him outright to the minors.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he had not yet talked to Lopez about his behavior when he met with reporters.
“Whenever you’re going through a stretch like this, you want to see some emotions from players, anybody in here,” Mendoza said. “But what we saw today out of Lopey, that’s not acceptable. And we will address that internally here.”
Shortstop Francisco Lindor called for the players-only meeting while Mendoza addressed the media in attempt to rally the team to reverse course.
The Mets, now 22-33, are 16 games out of first place in the National League East and six games out of the final wild-card spot. They have dropped seven of eight games and 13 of 16. Several of the defeats, including two of the three against the Dodgers this week, included bullpen meltdowns late.
Lindor said the meeting, which lasted over 30 minutes, was an opportunity for players to speak up and hold one another accountable. It also came after the team placed closer Edwin Diaz on the injured list with a shoulder impingement earlier Wednesday then lost slugger Pete Alonso to a hand injury after he was hit by a pitch against Los Angeles.
“It was good for everybody,” Lindor said. “A lot of players talked. That’s really good. A lot of knowledge was dropped. Now we just got to put it together.”
The Mets have 107 regular-season games remaining, but the reality is the team has two months to convince president of baseball operations David Stearns to not trade players before the July 30 deadline. Stearns on Tuesday said the deadline will be “an inflection point in the season.”
The defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers are rolling. The Carolina Hurricanes are reeling.
Sam Bennett scored one of his two goals in Florida’s three-goal first period, Sergei Bobrovsky made 17 saves, and the Panthers beat the Hurricanes 5-0 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.
Gustav Forsling and Matthew Tkachuk also scored in another tone-setting opening 20 minutes for the Panthers, while Carter Verhaeghe had three assists in the win.
“It might have been natural for us to take a little bit to get going tonight, and it was the exact opposite,” said Tkachuk, whose putaway off the feed from Verhaeghe at the crease marked his first goal since Game 3 of the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning. “It was an unreal start from us. The goals aside, just the way we played in the first period was as good as it gets. Yeah, that’s just a hell of a road trip.”
Florida had already ripped home-ice advantage away Tuesday night with a 5-2 win, the opener in a rematch of the 2023 conference finals swept by the Panthers with four one-goal wins. Florida tightened its grip on the series with this one and now heads back south to host Game 3 on Saturday night.
Bennett scored a second time by skating in to clean up an attempt at the right post in the final minute of the second period to make it 4-0, ending a long shift in Carolina’s end prolonged by Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns being stuck on the ice after breaking his stick. Aleksander Barkov added a goal midway through the third as punctuation.
Bobrovsky had his third shutout of the playoffs this year and the sixth of his career, with Florida’s defense smothering a Carolina team that typically peppers the net with shots but found little daylight.
Florida has won four straight road games by a combined score of 22-4, this time sending Hurricanes fans fleeing for the exits early.
“It’s fun when you’re on the road and it goes quiet,” Verhaeghe said. “It feels like we’re doing our job.”
It wasn’t all great news for Florida. Veteran forward Sam Reinhart was knocked from the game in the first period after taking a hit from Sebastian Aho in the left leg, causing Reinhart’s knee to bend awkwardly.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice said after the game that Reinhart would be evaluated Friday and that there would be no update on Reinhart’s status until Saturday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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