Aaron Boone: Why Yankees won’t ever make Mets lineup blunder

The bumbling Mets batted out of order in the first inning of a 2-1 10-inning loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday, May 9, 2018 (5/9/18). Yankees manager Aaron Boone says that would never happen to his club.

NEW YORK — Of course, Aaron Boone had heard the latest stunt in the circus across town.

The Yankees‘ manager was well aware that the bumbling Mets had — of all things — batted out of order in Wednesday’s 2-1, 10-inning loss to the Reds in Cincinnati.

“I certainly know what happened (Wednesday),” Boone said. 

“It’s one of the things I’m paranoid about every single day. We have about eight layers that we go through to make sure that something like that hopefully doesn’t happen to us, but I certainly understand how it could.”

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With two outs, Asdrubal Cabrera cracked a double. But something was wrong. Wilmer Flores, who had struck out for the second out, was supposed to hit after Cabrera, not before him.

Immediately, interim Reds manager Jim Riggleman jumped out of the dugout and went to the home plate umpire. 

After umps talked, Jay Bruce, the Mets’ No. 4 hitter, was called out to end the inning. Cabrera kept his double and Bruce was ruled out as 2-unassisted.

According to a report, the Mets gave a lineup card to reports that had Flores hitting second and Cabrera third. The official scorecard, however, flipped the names.

“It probbaly cost us the game,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said.

“I was very pissed at myself,” he added.

“What happens is, you find the proper batter. In this case, Flores hits second and made an out. It doesn’t benefit the Reds to say anything. They let Cabrera hit. He got a base hit, now it benefits them to bring it up and say he batted out of order. When they threw the first pitch to Cabrera, that leaglized Flores as a hitter. So now, the proper batter is Bruce. When they bring it up, in that situation, you take Cabrera off the field, you call Bruce out, and now the next batter is Gonzalez,” plate umpire Jerry Meals said.

Had Meals ever seen that before?

“In the minor leagues. It’s been a long time — 32 years,” the umpire said.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.