NEW YORK — Jeff McNeil says he had no intention of turning a double play within the eighth inning on Friday. As a result of Brett Baty’s throw from third base was low, McNeil didn’t have sufficient time to catch the ball, pivot, and throw out Willy Adames working down the first-base line. He knew that. Rhys Hoskins didn’t. Approaching the second-base bag at full velocity, Hoskins slid and knocked McNeil to his knees, kicking the ball out of his glove.
As McNeil clambered to his ft, he pointed at Hoskins and started yelling at him. The Mets second baseman thought-about the play pointless if not outright soiled. Hoskins tried “to place a spike in somebody’s leg,” as McNeil put it. Hoskins disagreed. So did the replay crew, which studied the slide on overview and dominated it authorized.
“Only a late slide,” McNeil stated, citing a historical past of “some fairly questionable slides” from Hoskins at second base. “We’ve had just a little little bit of a previous, so I knew that there was an opportunity he’d be coming in like that. I simply didn’t like his slide.”
As McNeil jawed at Hoskins, each benches and bullpens emptied, however solely verbal jabs had been exchanged. Umpires shortly restored order in what grew to become a 3-1 Brewers win over the Mets.
“I am simply attempting to play baseball, proper?” Hoskins stated. “We have got an opportunity within the eighth with a runner on to tack on one other run, and the very last thing I wish to do is give them a transparent lane to make a double play. A sure somebody took — McNeil took — exception to my slide, however I did not actually assume a lot of it, to be trustworthy. I ended up hitting him, however that is what occurs with a slow-developing play the place I’m attempting to verify he doesn’t flip the double play.”
The Mets are lots conversant in MLB’s slide rule, which the league amended after the 2015 season partly due to a late Chase Utley slide throughout the Nationwide League Division Collection that broke Ruben Tejada’s leg. The present rule states {that a} runner should make a “bona fide slide,” outlined as:
Hoskins checked all these containers on his slide into second, grabbing the bottom along with his proper hand and gripping it at the same time as most of his physique slid past. However Mets gamers cited the distinction between an unlawful slide and what Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor known as an “ugly play.”
“Each time one thing like that does occur, it doesn’t look good,” Lindor stated. “I really feel prefer it was a late slide, however they didn’t name it unlawful. So it’s a authorized, late slide. … He wasn’t going on the base.”
“There’s soiled slides, there’s clear slides, there’s in-between slides,” McNeil added. “It’s a grey line. It wasn’t known as. It’s unlucky. … It was a authorized slide, so I simply wish to depart it at that.”
Brewers supervisor Pat Murphy challenged the notion of it being a grimy play.
“Simply good, hard-nosed baseball,” was how Murphy outlined it. “We anticipate that out of all of our guys, and we anticipate it out of all of our opponents.”
A part of McNeil’s anger stemmed from the Mets’ historical past with Hoskins, a long-time Phillie who has drawn New York’s ire previously. Most notably, an evening after Mets reliever Jacob Rhame threw two pitches close to Hoskins’ head throughout a 2019 sport at Citi Subject, prompting benches to empty, Hoskins homered off Rhame and took 34 seconds to around the bases.
McNeil additionally expressed shock that Hoskins, who missed all final season rehabbing from a torn ACL in his left knee, would try such a slide in his first regular-season sport again from damage. Though Hoskins didn’t instantly rise to his ft following the incident, he stated he had no qualms about his well being. As a substitute, Hoskins “was simply letting no matter McNeil wanted to get out, let him get it out.”
“I’ve performed on this ballpark a bunch, and he is simply — he appears to be complaining when issues aren’t going effectively, and I feel that is a type of moments,” Hoskins stated. “Possibly misplaced within the warmth of the sport just a little bit. However once more, I feel it’s simply enjoying the sport laborious and enjoying the sport the best manner.”