Meet the Mess! Mets outfield boots it around as Toronto’s Springer scores Little League homer

TORONTO (AP) — The first half of the season has been a messy one for the last-place New York Mets.

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Now, even the routine plays aren’t routine.

Toronto designated hitter George Springer rounded the bases on a Little League home run against the Mets on Monday night when New York star left fielder Juan Soto misplayed a sinking line drive and center fielder A.J. Ewing flubbed the throw backing up the play.

Springer led off the bottom of the first by looping a ball to left against Mets pitcher Sean Manaea. The ball bounced in front of Soto, and the highest-paid player in Mets history fanned while reaching for it.

“It just took a weird hop on me and bounced a little different,” Soto said. “I thought I had a chance and then it just kept dying. I definitely took a good first step but the ball kept just dying.”

The ball rolled all the way to the wall as the 36-year-old Springer chugged around the bases.

Ewing came over to field it behind Soto, only to have the ball slip out of his glove as he tried to pick it up. The ball rolled back to the fence for a second time. Soto picked it up, but by the time he had it in his hand, Springer had rounded third and was heading for home.

Interim Mets manager Andy Green said Soto played Springer’s ball aggressively but was beaten by a turf bounce.

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“I think every single time I’ve come to Toronto I’ve seen that particular play,” Green said. “Not necessarily the finish of that play. I know A.J. usually makes the transfer fine, but that play happens frequently here and it got us in the first.”

Springer was given a triple, his first of the year, with a one-base error.

“It was funny after the fact that he was out of breath for the next three innings,” Blue Jays pitcher Trey Yesavage said of his veteran teammate

Springer jokingly disputed Yesavage’s account.

“Like nine (innings),” he said of his fight for wind. “Had to get this old body ready to run a little bit faster, but it’s all good.”

The error was Ewing’s second of the season. Shortstop Francisco Lindor made an error later in the game, boosting New York’s total to 56 on the season, third-most in the majors behind the Washington Nationals and San Francisco Giants.

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