Mets, Brewers benches clear on Opening Day after Rhys Hoskins slides into Jeff McNeil

NEW YORK — Jeff McNeil says he had no intention of turning a double play within the eighth inning on Friday. As a result of Brett Baty’s throw from third base was low, McNeil didn’t have sufficient time to catch the ball, pivot, and throw out Willy Adames operating down the first-base line. He knew that. Rhys Hoskins didn’t. Approaching the second-base bag at full velocity, Hoskins slid and knocked McNeil to his knees, kicking the ball out of his glove.

As McNeil clambered to his toes, he pointed at Hoskins and started yelling at him. The Mets second baseman thought of the play pointless if not outright soiled. Hoskins tried “to place a spike in somebody’s leg,” as McNeil put it. Hoskins disagreed. So did the replay crew, which studied the slide on assessment and dominated it authorized.

“Only a late slide,” McNeil stated, citing a historical past of “some fairly questionable slides” from Hoskins at second base. “We’ve had just a little little bit of a previous, so I knew that there was an opportunity he’d be coming in like that. I simply didn’t like his slide.”

As McNeil jawed at Hoskins, each benches and bullpens emptied, however solely verbal jabs have been exchanged. Umpires shortly restored order in what grew to become a 3-1 Brewers win over the Mets.

“I am simply attempting to play baseball, proper?” Hoskins stated. “We have an opportunity within the eighth with a runner on to tack on one other run, and the very last thing I need to do is give them a transparent lane to make a double play. A sure somebody took — McNeil took — exception to my slide, however I did not actually suppose a lot of it, to be trustworthy. I ended up hitting him, however that is what occurs with a slow-developing play the place I’m attempting to ensure he doesn’t flip the double play.”

The Mets are lots conversant in MLB’s slide rule, which the league amended after the 2015 season partially due to a late Chase Utley slide throughout the Nationwide League Division Collection that broke Ruben Tejada’s leg. The present rule states {that a} runner should make a “bona fide slide,” outlined as:

Hoskins checked all these packing containers on his slide into second, grabbing the bottom together with his proper hand and gripping it whilst most of his physique slid past. However Mets gamers cited the distinction between an unlawful slide and what Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor known as an “ugly play.”

“Every time one thing like that does occur, it doesn’t look good,” Lindor stated. “I really feel prefer it was a late slide, however they didn’t name it unlawful. So it’s a authorized, late slide. … He wasn’t going on the base.”

“There’s soiled slides, there’s clear slides, there’s in-between slides,” McNeil added. “It’s a grey line. It wasn’t known as. It’s unlucky. … It was a authorized slide, so I simply need to go away it at that.”

Brewers supervisor Pat Murphy challenged the notion of it being a unclean play.

“Simply good, hard-nosed baseball,” was how Murphy outlined it. “We count on that out of all of our guys, and we count on it out of all of our opponents.”

A part of McNeil’s anger stemmed from the Mets’ historical past with Hoskins, a long-time Phillie who has drawn New York’s ire previously. Most notably, an evening after Mets reliever Jacob Rhame threw two pitches close to Hoskins’ head throughout a 2019 sport at Citi Subject, prompting benches to empty, Hoskins homered off Rhame and took 34 seconds to around the bases.

McNeil additionally expressed shock that Hoskins, who missed all final season rehabbing from a torn ACL in his left knee, would try such a slide in his first regular-season sport again from damage. Though Hoskins didn’t instantly rise to his toes following the incident, he stated he had no qualms about his well being. As an alternative, Hoskins “was simply letting no matter McNeil wanted to get out, let him get it out.”

“I’ve performed on this ballpark a bunch, and he is simply — he appears to be complaining when issues aren’t going nicely, and I feel that is a kind of moments,” Hoskins stated. “Perhaps misplaced within the warmth of the sport just a little bit. However once more, I feel it’s simply taking part in the sport arduous and taking part in the sport the fitting approach.”