As for basebrawls to clean up the bench, the fight that broke out in the bottom of the eighth inning of the New York Mets vs. St. Louis Cardinals game Wednesday hit all the right notes. You have your frustrated Mets seething about being repeatedly tossed on the plate; apparent retaliation from Mets assist Yoan Lopez, who shot up and into a fastball and, of course, later said he missed the field; a tackle from Cardinal’s first base coach, the fantastically named Stubby Clapp; a Cardinals pitcher tipping over the bullpen wall instead of using the stairs; and a post-game brawl debrief in which Mets star Pete Alonso referred to himself as a “big tough guy” multiple times. These are the moments baseball fans live for.
It all started in the top of the eighth when Mets batsman JD Davis got his foot drilled by a Genesis Cabrera throw and was forced out of the game.
The Mets, who lead MLB in HBPs this season — 19 so far, including three from Tuesday night’s game against the Cardinals — seemed to get their revenge immediately when Lopez threw a pitch near Nolan Arenado’s head.
Arenado yelled at Lopez, “do it again‘ and then both teams jumped out of their dugouts.
If you keep an eye on the left side of the scrum, you’ll see Cardinals first base coach Stubby Clapp grab and bodyslam Mets hitter Pete Alonso from behind. Stubby looked like he was having a blast:
Screenshot: SNY
Another angle shows Cardinals Auxiliary Giovanny Gallegos jumping over the bullpen wall and sprinting into melee combat.
The real star of the Cardinals/Mets brawl was Cardinals relief Giovanny Gallegos, who hopped the bullpen fence instead of using the stairs 😂 pic.twitter.com/7eRfnWy3Qf
— Breaking Bats Podcast (@BreakingBatsPod) April 27, 2022
The post-game interviews were pretty typical, with each team taking offense at the other team’s actions while having no problem with their own, but it was Alonso, the guy who got knocked down by a guy named Stubby, who quotes provided the funniest sentence. You already know things are going in the right direction when Alonso starts his response by talking about how it felt to be “bulged” during Tuesday’s game and then he just keeps talking about, what a big strong guy he is.
🎥 Pete Alonso doesn’t mince his words in today’s argument. “If I wanted to take someone to the hospital, I could easily do that.” Says he was simply protecting his teammates when he was knocked down: pic.twitter.com/iPTlLr5SiL
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) April 27, 2022
“I’m a big guy, a big strong guy, obviously the manager wants protection for his team.”
“To me I’m a big strong guy, they don’t know my temper, they don’t know what I could do. I mean, if I wanted to take someone to the hospital, I could easily do that, but I was just out there trying to protect my boys.”
So let the record show: Stubby Clapp really knows how to mix it up, and Pete Alonso is a big, strong dude.