PRESENT TENSE
Bad blood could spill over from last drama-filled Mets-Cards series
The rain washed away Monday’s showdown between the Mets and Cardinals, but it remains to be seen whether tensions will also be cooled off since the last time the teams met.
Tuesday’s doubleheader at Citi Field will now be the first time the Mets and Cardinals have squared off since their memorable threegame series in St. Louis at the end of April, which ended in a benchesclearing brawl and discipline being handed out for both sides.
Still, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said Monday there had not been any warning from or conversations with MLB, regarding the teams’ recent bad blood, ahead of the series.
Asked if he expected any carryover, Marmol insisted it was not on his mind.
“Honestly I didn’t even think of it until you brought it up right now,” Marmol said. “It actually took me a second to understand what you were asking. So no.”
Neither Mets manager Buck Showalter nor his players were made available to reporters on Monday because of the rainout.
The last series between the teams did not lack for drama.
The series opener featured the Mets’ two-out, five-run rally in the ninth inning to win 5-2. There was only one hit-by-pitch in that game, with Mark Canha getting plunked by Miles Mikolas.
The middle game, a 3-0 Mets win, included five hit-by-pitches — the Mets getting drilled three times, including Pete Alonso in the head, and the Cardinals twice.
Tensions finally exploded in the series finale, a 10-5 Cardinals win, when Edmundo Sosa was hit by a Carlos Carrasco pitch in the fourth inning, J.D. Davis was plunked by a Genesis Cabrera pitch in the top of the eighth inning and then Nolan Arenado took exception to an upand-in pitch by Yoan Lopez in the bottom of the frame.
That triggered the benches emptying, with plenty of pushing and shoving between the two sides, including Cardinals first-base coach Stubby Clapp dragging Alonso down from behind.
“If you want to hold me back, if you want to restrain me, go at me like a man,” Alonso said after the game. “I totally understand because I am a big strong guy and obviously the manager wants to have protection for his team and his staff and I totally get it, and I am a big strong guy. They don’t know my temper and what I can do. If I wanted to put somebody in the hospital, I easily could, but I was just out there trying to protect my guys.”
Assuming Alonso plays first base for at least one of Tuesday’s games, he and Clapp, of course, will spend nine innings a few feet apart from each other.
As a result of the benches-clearing incident, Arenado (two games, later reduced to one) and Cabrera (one game) were suspended while Lopez, Taijuan Walker and Jack Flaherty (the latter two for leaving the dugout while on the injured list) were fined.
Showalter did not seem pleased upon learning that Clapp did not face any discipline,
“Nothing? Really?” Showalter said on April 29. “Okey dokey.”
The Mets have often been frustrated by opponents hitting them through the first-month plus of the season. The frequency with which they have been plunked has slowed down, but they still entered Monday with an MLB-leading 25 hit-bypitches.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals’ pitching staff had hit 18 batters this season — five of them Mets — which tied for the fourth-most in MLB as of Monday.
It’s possible that the three weeks between the series have cooled tempers, but it might not take much to reignite old flames during this four-game set.