Brett Baty’s pop-up blunder ends with ball smacking him in face

For a brief moment, Brett Baty took his eye off the ball, and that was it. 

He lost it. 

The third baseman tried to adjust, but at that point he was helpless.

Matt Muncy’s sky-high pop-up, with runners on second and third and one out in the ninth inning Saturday night, not only fell out of Baty’s reach on a dive, but also hit off his face and rolled away. 

A run scored and boos rained down on the Mets rookie. 

“Lefty was up, I was trying to hold the runner close to the bag. And it went up, I actually thought I was going to catch it in foul ground,” Baty said after the 5-1 loss to the Dodgers at Citi Field. “And then I took my eye off of it for one second and kind of got spun around. But there’s no excuse for that. That play needs to be made.” 

The play immediately went viral on social media, adding insult to the embarrassing mistake.

To make matters worse, in the previous frame, Baty struck out on three pitches against southpaw Caleb Ferguson with the tying run on third base and one out.

All in all, it was an evening Baty would like to forget. 

Looking back on the error, Baty said he has to do a better job of communicating with shortstop Francisco Lindor.

The two talked about it briefly on the field afterwards.

Once he got a sense the play was getting away from him, he needed to make sure Lindor was aware of the circumstances. 

“I need to communicate better for sure,” Baty said. 

This season obviously hasn’t gone according to plan for the Mets or Baty, one of their top prospects.

He started the season at Triple-A Syracuse and tore the cover off the ball, but he hasn’t produced nearly up to expectations with the Mets.