The Washington Nationals and New York Mets gave us our first bench-clearing incident of the 2022 MLB season.
Things got heated between the teams during the top of the fifth inning on Friday night when reliever Steve Cishek threw up and in on Francisco Lindor, who was attempting to bunt. Cishek’s pitch hit Lindor in the helmet, and the Mets shortstop went to the ground.
Mets manager Buck Showalter came out of the dugout yelling, while players from both sides came onto the field.
Cishek was ejected from the game even though it was just his second pitch. He was replaced by Sean Doolittle.
The low tolerance for Cishek’s high pitch to Lindor may have been rooted in what happened a day earlier. The Nats hit the Mets with a pitch three times in Thursday’s opener. James McCann was hit twice, while Pete Alonso was hit in the head.
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