JEFF WON’T LET IT SLIDE
Met, Brewer benches clear after McNeil takes exception with Hoskins’ hard approach into second base
On a day the Mets honored Bud Harrelson, a hard slide into second base caused benches to clear.
Rhys Hoskins’ apparent attempt to break up a seventh-inning double play on Friday ended with the Brewers first baseman kicking Jeff McNeil’s right leg and rolling into his left, infuriating the Mets second baseman and prompting both dugouts and bullpens to empty.
McNeil, 31, got up after the collision and shouted and pointed at Hoskins, continuing to yell as second base umpire
Jonathan Parra intervened. No punches were thrown, nor was anyone ejected in the Mets’ 3-1 loss at Citi Field on Opening Day.
Afterward, McNeil ripped Hoskins’ slide as “late.”
“We’ve had a little bit of a past, so I knew there was a chance that he’d be coming in like that, and just didn’t like his slide,” McNeil said. “I wasn’t trying to turn the double play at all. I was just trying to catch the ball. There was no need to break it up.”
Asked about their past history, McNeil said, “He’s had some pretty questionable slides at second base, for sure. Definitely remember looking at some in the past that were definitely not OK.”
The tense moment unfolded when the Brewers’ Willy Adames hit a ground ball to third baseman Brett Baty, who then made a low throw to McNeil. McNeil said he didn’t plan on attempting to turn the double play because Baty’s throw was too low, calling himself “actually really fortunate” that the throw wasn’t higher.
The Mets lost a challenge when an umpire review determined Hoskins did not commit a slide rule violation.
Hoskins defended his slide as “playing the game hard.”
“He just seems to be complaining when
things aren’t going well,” Hoskins said of McNeil.
Hoskins, 31, spent his first seven seasons with the Phillies, missing all of last year with a torn ACL. He signed a one-year deal with the Brewers during the offseason.
Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor defended McNeil’s reaction to the slide, saying, “We haven’t played the game like that in a while.”
“MLB took that away from us for a while, so when plays like that do happen in the heat of the game, it doesn’t look good,” Lindor said.
Added Mets first baseman Pete Alonso, “Rhys slid past the bag. He slid late. It’s one thing playing hard, but going and getting him, it’s happened before.”
Adding to the spectacle was that hours earlier, the Mets recognized the late Harrelson, who famously brawled with Pete Rose in Game 3 of the 1973 NLCS after Rose delivered a hard slide into second base.
That benches-clearing tussle remains a lasting image in Mets history, so much so that Harrelson’s daughter, Kimberly Harrelson-Psarras, referenced the moment during a pregame press conference at Citi Field.
“I remember him being banged up,” Harrelson-Psarras said Friday. “He didn’t really talk about it. I can remember him being very calm and somber about it, but you definitely could tell he was in a scuffle.”
Harrelson died in January at age 79 after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. The former infielder’s grandchildren threw out the ceremonial first pitches during Friday’s Opening Day festivities, while the Mets also debuted the Harrelson jersey patches they’ll wear all season.