The New York Mets have made no secret of their unhappiness at having been hit by so many pitches this season — the Mets were led 18 times in MLB as of Wednesday, seven times more than any other team — and their frustrations boiled over into a bench evacuation incident with the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday afternoon (STL 10, NYM 5).
At the end of the eighth inning, Mets righty Yoan López vomited and tackled Nolan Arenado, and the benches were cleared after Arenado had some words for López and catcher Tomás Nido. Cardinals left-back Génesis Cabrera hit JD Davis with a pitch in the previous inning and Davis retired with an ankle injury.
“I don’t know how close it was. It just felt close. It was just high,” Arenado said after the game (Video). “I’m not saying he’s trying to throw it up there. It’s just that the ball went away, but that’s the problem with this stuff.”
Here’s the hustle and bustle. Arenado and Cardinals first base coach Stubby Clapp got kicked out:
“They would put words in my mouth that it was on purpose, which it wasn’t,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said after the game (Video). When asked about Arenado’s reaction, Showalter added, “I let them treat their players. I know our player got hit in the head and went to first base (Tuesday night).”
Five players (three Mets and two Cardinals) were hit in Tuesday night’s game, including Pete Alonso in the head, Showalter referenced. It prompted Mets righty Chris Bassitt to rip MLB over baseball’s inconsistency. Cardinals righty Miles Mikolas shot back Wednesday morning and said, “It’s not the ball’s fault. Take responsibility for your actions.”
“It’s one of those things, whether it’s intentional or not, it has to stop,” Starling Marte said after Tuesday’s game. “We’re sick of being hit and we have to do something about it if it keeps happening because it’s uncomfortable every time you go out to get hit.”
“Overcoupling isn’t fun, it’s honestly not safe, it’s dangerous and there are consequences, whether intentional or not,” Alonso said after Wednesday’s game. “We will stand up for ourselves.”
Alonso was attacked from behind by Clapp – note Clapp’s ejection – and commented: “I was pulled from behind, actually Génesis Cabrera grabbed me by the collar and he just yanked down and the coach kind of jumped on me. I thought it was kind of cheap coming from behind. If you want to pull me back, if you want to hold me back, approach me like a man.
“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.”
Before Wednesday’s game, Buck Showalter said he didn’t want the Mets to retaliate for hitting pitches because someone could get hurt. By Tim Healey of Newsday:
“There are a lot of emotions flying around. Stop thinking this through. There are many other ways to show your toughness than hitting someone in the head. Then suddenly someone’s career is over and someone is lying there with blood pouring out of their ears. How are you really feeling? Was it worth it? No, it was kind of stupid. But there’s a lot of frustration.”
The Mets are an outlier this year — again, they’ve been hit 18 times before Wednesday’s game and no other team has been hit more than 11 — although their frustration is understandable. That is, surrendering and getting in by a batsman is always met with a reaction from the other team. There are right and wrong ways to get revenge, and anything that is on your mind will only escalate the situation.
Thursday was López’s debut with the Mets. At the start of Wednesday’s game, teams were averaging 0.42 hits from pitchers per game earlier this season. The hit-by-pitch rate ranged from 0.40 to 0.46 every year from 2017-21.