It has been an ugly series between the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals.
Three Mets hitters were hit by pitches on Tuesday night’s game, including this nasty play where Mets star first baseman Pete Alonso was hit in the head by Cardinals pitcher Kodi Whitley.
This moment saw the Mets dugout get ready to charge the mound, but nothing came of it and things quickly settled down.
Wednesday’s game brought us a retaliation by the Mets after another player was hit. This time, it created chaos in Busch Stadium. In the top of the eighth inning, Mets’ third baseman J.D Davis was hit by a pitch on a 3-2 count by Cardinals relief pitcher Genesis Cabrera.
It’s unclear if Cabrera was attempting to throw at Davis, but SNY announcer Ron Darling was certainly skeptical of his intentions.
“How can you miss so badly on a 3-2 pitch?” asked Darling.
Frustrations were clearly starting to grow for the Mets, and relief pitcher Yoan López threw a pitch up and in on Cardinals star third baseman Nolan Arenado, who took exception and charged the mound, resulting in both benches clearing and a brawl ensuing.
Ths brawl resulted in Arenado and Cardinals bench coach Stubby Clapp being ejected. Clapp was shown clearly tossing Mets star first baseman Pete Alonso to the ground in the brawl.
This incident also provided a great GIF of the Cardinals bullpen running out onto the field to get involved in the melee.
While it appears that Lopez was certainly trying to retaliate and throw at Arenado intentionally, this incident only proves Mets pitcher Chris Bassitt’s comments on the baseball being hard to control this season as a real problem that the league needs to figure out.
This was certainly an ugly moment, but it may point a light at what seems like could be a major issue for MLB.
Pitchers who have had experience for years of pitching are saying that they are having trouble gripping the baseball, which is obviously very crucial for location on their pitches. It certainly seems like a big issue that the league will need to fix quickly for the safety of the players going forward.
[SNY]