The bad blood between the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets boiled over to Saturday, leading to what many saw as a Mets pitcher intentionally throwing at Rhys Hoskins at a rather odd point of the game.
Mets reliever Yohan Ramirez threw a pitch that went behind Hoskins in the seventh inning of Saturday’s game. Hoskins, who already had a home run and four RBI in the game, certainly believed the pitch was intentional, as did most of the Citi Field crowd. The umpires did as well, as Ramirez was ejected from the game.
The SNY broadcast, particularly Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling, initially defended Ramirez and suggested he should have been given a warning. Their reasoning was essentially that it made little sense in the game situation to try to hit Hoskins, and that Ramirez’s pitch had missed so badly.
Later, Darling was highly critical of the situation, essentially saying even if the Mets were trying to exact revenge, they did it in a downright embarrassing way.
“The message is about two hours late,” Darling said. “If you wanted to send a message from what happened yesterday to protect your second baseman (Jeff) McNeil, his first at-bat, you brush him back, get him off the plate a little, let him know, we recognize what happened yesterday, that’s not going to happen today, and then we play ball. You don’t throw at someone after he’s beat your head in. That’s not when you throw at someone.”
Hoskins had homered and driven in four at the time of the incident, and the Brewers were ahead 6-2. If the Mets picked that moment to throw at Hoskins, as it looked like they did, it just makes them look silly.
The source of all this was a slightly late slide by Hoskins during Friday’s game that Jeff McNeil strongly objected to. The whole thing has turned quite silly, mostly because of how the Mets have reacted.
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