You’ve heard him at Citi Field but you’ve never seen him at Citi Field — until Tuesday.
Riding the wave of his song “Narco,” which features the famous, blaring horns, Timmy Trumpet was on hand at Citi Field to discuss the relief pitcher who changed his life.
Baseball fans have spent all season enthralled with closer Edwin Diaz’s entrance from the bullpen. “Narco,” the song that accompanies him on his jog to the mound, has become a viral sensation and brought the Australian trumpet player to the Major Leagues for the first time.
“This is my first baseball game I’ve ever been to,” Timmy Trumpet said. “I can assure you, I’m officially a Mets fan for life.”
The Mets called the musician and asked if he would play the song live on Tuesday, should Diaz enter the game. Manager Buck Showalter said he would not let a potential viral moment impact his managerial decisions, saying he felt no obligation to put Diaz in just so he can hear the trumpets, which he admittedly loves.
For Trumpet, who collaborated on the song with Dutch techno duo Blasterjaxx, the opportunity to just stand on the Citi Field warning track before the game was a head-spinning moment.
“Absolutely insane,” he said. “It’s incredibly humbling and a great honor that a world-class athlete is using my song as inspiration to run on that pitch. He could do this with any song, but I’m very thankful to the Mets’ supporters and anyone that’s adding this track to their playlist and supporting ‘Narco.’ Most importantly, I want to thank Diaz. He’s the one who picked it. I don’t have the words.”
Timmy Trumpet has seen the videos of the crowd going berserk whenever Diaz comes in for a save and the trumpets echo around the stadium.
“They’re wild,” he said of Mets’ fans. “It actually reminds me of one of the festivals we just did. It looks like a big party, and that was the intention of this song when we wrote it in the first place.”
The musician has played several of the biggest stages in electronic music, including the Tomorrowland festival in Belgium that just drew 600,000 people over the course of its three-weekend run. Still, he couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that his trumpet has now brought him to a 42,000-seat baseball stadium in Flushing, Queens.
“I’ve never been in a stadium this big before,” he said. “I’ve got goosebumps constantly. In America, I’ve never had anything of this magnitude, and none of it would be possible without Diaz. I’m just stoked to be here, but more importantly, I want Diaz to have fun out there, enjoy himself, and do what he does best.”
Despite not knowing much about baseball at all — Timmy Trumpet said he played cricket as a kid in Australia and is still learning the intricacies of its American cousin — the 40-year-old musician offered a prediction.
“Tonight is not about me. It’s about this superstar right here. I can’t wait to see Diaz play this at the World Series. I’ll be there for that one.”
WHAT A RELIEF
Showalter has had the luxury of managing two of the best relief pitcher seasons of the last t10 years. In 2016, he was Zack Britton’s manager in Baltimore as the lefty closer saved an American League-high 47 games, posted a 0.54 ERA and finished fourth in Cy Young Voting and 11th in the MVP race. Showalter said that was when he began to understand what it takes to be a truly elite ninth-inning guy.
“I remember the first time I thought I really had a closer, [it was] Zack Britton. He had lost a game in a save situation in New York against the Yankees, a guy hit a walk-off off him. He came back the next day and went three-up, three-down on about ten pitches. I remember going up the runway with [then-Baltimore pitching coach] Roger McDowell I think it was, saying, ‘Hey, we got a closer.’”
As for Diaz, Showalter wouldn’t come right out and say that he thinks his 2022 season is better than Britton’s 2016, but he did say it’s a bit humorous how Diaz’s struggles are being framed.
“I don’t think we ever take for granted what he’s doing,” Showalter said. “It’s hard. It’s kind of funny, I get a question here when he actually has somebody on base, or a runner gets to second or he walks somebody. It’s like, ‘What’s going on?’”
For the record, according to FanGraphs’ version of the statistic, Diaz has already tied Britton’s 2016 Wins Above Replacement total (2.5).
CARRASCO COMING BACK
Showalter informed reporters that Carlos Carrasco threw roughly 55 pitches in a simulated game on Monday. It all went well and should be enough to get him back in action soon.
“He’s going to take a work day,” Showalter said of Carrasco, whose oblique injury has kept him out since Aug. 15. “If everything goes well, he should be back in the rotation by the end of the week.”
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