Blind rage
Frazier fed up with umps’ strike fails
Todd Frazier has seen enough. The Mets third baseman unloaded Wednesday night on umpires across the league over an issue that clearly has been boiling up.
It was a meaningless called strike one that did appear to be outside of the zone with two outs in the bottom of the ninth of a lopsided game, but it prompted Frazier to turn around and voice his displeasure to home plate umpire Lance Barrett. After the Mets’ 7-0 loss to the Braves, Frazier explained his annoyance.
“There’s no accountability,” Frazier said. “I’m getting really frustrated with these guys in the last five or six games that put you in a hole.
“Something has to be done because the more we talk about it, the more frustrated I’m getting. I’m not making excuses, we lost fair and square, the kid [Braves starter Sean Newcomb] pitched a hell of a game. But these umpires gotta get better, bottom line.”
Frazier, who went 0-for-4 with a swinging strikeout as the Mets managed just three hits, said he wants to sit down with commissioner Rob Manfred or somebody in MLB and talk about what he says is “rubbing everybody the wrong way” across the league.
Frazier said Sunday, when the Mets were in San Diego, he had a meeting with one umpire, who he declined to name, during a series in which he struck out four times, three of them looking.
“I asked one of the umpires, ‘Do you understand how many pitches you missed?’ ” Frazier said. “He said, ‘No, I didn’t miss that many pitches.’ I think I said he missed 14 in one game, which was the truth. He said, ‘ My percentage was better than that.’
“He said, ‘Let’s have a meeting,’ and we had one. It was very good. I respect him for doing that, but at the same time, when you look back and see this kind of stuff where they’re blatantly not strikes, I just can’t sit back and let it go anymore.”
Frazier said the issue “has been going on for years,” but has gotten worse this season. ➤ Mets manager Mickey Callaway has one reason for
Jason Vargas’ very forgettable Mets debut. The Padres lit up the lefty for nine earned runs in 3 2/3 innings Saturday in San Diego. Vargas missed much of spring training with a non-displaced fracture of the hamate bone in his right (nonthrowing) hand.
“Throwing in front of this screen for a month, he changed his mechanics a little bit,” Callaway said of Vargas, who will start again Thursday as the Mets try to salvage the finale of a three-game series against the Braves. “We’re definitely not worried about his mentality or anything.”
“Fortunately, I can say that hasn’t happened too many times in my career,” said Vargas who surrendered two homers and claimed no issues at all with the hand.
➤ Yoenis Cespedes doubled in the first inning Wednesday, and although it extended his hit streak to eight games, it was costly. As Cespedes stood at second, he removed his diamond necklace. The chain broke and diamonds spilled all over the basepaths. Asdrubal Cabrera picked up a bunch the next inning.
“I got a couple,” Cabrera said laughing. “I don’t know if they’re diamonds or not but I picked them up.”
➤ Wednesday represented the first time the Mets were shut out this season. … It also marked the first time they were out of first since April 3.