Picked Off…

Jon Blau, of www.mlb.com, writes about Jose Reyes' aggressiveness not paying off.

As Reyes took one, two, three steps off the second-base bag in Saturday's fifth inning, eventually living dangerously with a fourth or fifth stride, the Mets' shortstop just stared down Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte.

All Reyes had on his mind: 1.6 seconds to the plate.

With the aggressiveness of a true base stealer, Reyes was confident that he could have swiped third base before Pettitte released his pitch. Even if the situation seemed risky -- two outs, with the winning run sitting on first and David Wright batting -- Reyes said he had to take that lead.

"Even if I don't get a good jump," Reyes said after the game, "I am still going to make it."

Just when Reyes had his eyes on third, about to take off and help Damion Easley advance to second, Pettitte turned toward the bag with an inside move. Reyes' dive back toward the base proved a twitch too late. He got caught.

(When is someone going to call a balk on Pettitte ? Watch the replay.)

The inning was over, Easley was left on base and, once again, the struggling Mets' offense let slip away a tailor-made scoring opportunity in a 3-2 loss to the Yankees.

"He got me there," Reyes said, more complimentary of Pettitte's pickoff than being critical of his own reckless base running prowess. "Nothing I can do about it."

Mets manager Jerry Manuel saw Reyes leaning toward third base on that play, and it's not the thought that bothers him. It was just another minute detail that a Met overlooked in his thirst to break free from losing, as Reyes didn't anticipate the pickoff attempt.

As Manuel said before, they'll get there. Eventually, Manuel is confident that the Mets will get to a place where these mistakes don't occur. He said they will stop swinging at bad pitches and stop forcing it on the base paths, yet they will still try to maintain their aggressiveness on offense.

Manuel said he gave the 25-year-old a quick tutorial after that key out.

"He has to be a little more careful," Manuel said. "We discussed that. I don't want to stop his aggressiveness, but at the same time, I want him to play smart. He's got to be somewhat cognizant of the inside move at that point. And he's a guy that's going to draw a lot of attention, and those are things he has to be aware of."

The last road trip to Colorado, Reyes also got picked off, but Manuel joked that the pitcher that day was picking everyone off, including the coaches. Regardless, Reyes still thinks he was just doing his job as a base stealer on this most recent caught-in-the-act moment.

It was just an inopportune time not to succeed.

"I am a base stealer, so that happens a lot," Reyes said. "It's part of the game. Hopefully, it doesn't happen again."

(It was horrible timing. David Wright had to be given the opportunity to swing the bat.)