On Opening Day, the New York Mets’ Pete Alonso and James McCann were hit by pitches from the Washington Nationals’ pitching staff. Alonso had the pitch ricochet off his face, and he went into concussion protocol, but passed. Mets manager Buck Showalter was not happy about the hit-by-pitches (via SNY and Yahoo):
“I won’t make light of it – I’m not happy about it,” Buck Showalter said after the game. “Just like McCann, got the slider that bounced off [McCann’s] foot, but don’t like to see that.”
“It’s an emotional game played by people that care,” he added when asked if the dugout was angry. “You ever gotten hit by a pitch in the mouth? Not particularly pleasant, so certainly, there’s some emotion there.”
Fast-forward to Game 2 on Friday night.
In the top of the fifth inning, the Mets’ Francisco Lindor was hit in the face by a pitch from Washington’s Steve Cishek. Now, Lindor was squaring to bunt which puts him in a more vulnerable position, but it was still a very dangerous up-and-in pitch.
Benches immediately cleared, with a livid Showalter leading the way and yelling things that likely weren’t very friendly.
Lindor left the game, and Cishek was ejected.
Scary stuff, and we may not have seen the end of this storyline with how furious Showalter is. Nats hitters won’t dig into the box very comfortably for the rest of the weekend (and neither will Mets hitters after getting hit four times already in the series).
UPDATE: Lindor had x-rays on his jaw that were negative. Additionally, he passed concussion testing. So, that’s good news.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.