Mets RHP Chris Bassitt: MLB has 'very big problem' with baseballs
Chris Bassitt and the New York Mets should have been all smiles on Tuesday night after they defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 and tallied a franchise-best sixth straight series win to start the season.
But the right-hander was more frustrated than anything else because three of his teammates got dinged by the ball while at the plate. That brings the total number of Mets players hit-by-pitches to a league-leading 18 times to start the season.
In Bassitt's mind, the issue is that all the baseballs used across the league are different — and the MLB doesn't care enough to make them uniform.
"The MLB has a very big problem with the baseballs," Bassitt vented to the press postgame. "They're bad. Everyone in the league knows it. Every pitcher knows it. They're bad. They don't care. MLB doesn't give a damn about it. They don't care. We've told them our problems with them, and they don't care."
Bassitt isn't alone with his concerns. After teammate Pete Alonso was drilled in the helmet in the third inning — the second time this season the slugger has been beaned in the noggin — both benches partially cleared.
"It's one thing to get hit in the toe or knee, but we're getting a lot of balls in the head and the neck, and it's just not good. Not good," Mets skipper Buck Showalter said, via ESPN. "You care about your players, and without getting into right and wrong and what have you, you reach a point where it's about safety of your players. We're lucky. You're talking about a pitch that broke his helmet. It's not good, I'm not happy."
The Mets close out the series with the Cardinals on Wednesday.
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