By Tim Britton, Will Sammon and C. Trent Rosecrans
NEW YORK — A quiet Opening Day contest between the New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers was enlivened by a benches-clearing incident within the eighth inning.
On a Willy Adames forceout at second base, Mets second baseman Jeff McNeil was angered by Rhys Hoskins’ slide into the bag, and instantly started pointing at Hoskins and yelling at him. McNeil had fumbled the ball on the switch, shedding a shot at a double play, and it regarded like Hoskins caught the infielder’s left ankle together with his spikes past the bag.
The benches cleared half-heartedly, and a replay overview confirmed that Hoskins’ slide into the bottom was authorized.
✅ Cursin’
✅ Benches clearin’
✅ Crybaby hand-motionin’Baseball is so again.
🎥 @SNYtv pic.twitter.com/AnuueWKla6
— The Athletic MLB (@TheAthleticMLB) March 29, 2024
Whereas that is Hoskins’ first recreation with the Brewers, he and the Mets have a historical past courting again to his time with the Philadelphia Phillies. McNeil mentioned the historical past between him and Hoskins extends past the gradual trot of the house run and consists of “some fairly questionable slides at second base.” McNeil mentioned he remembered some previously that “positively weren’t OK.”
“We’ve had just a little little bit of a previous so I knew there was an opportunity he’d be coming in like that, and simply didn’t just like the slide,” McNeil mentioned. “I wasn’t making an attempt to show the double play in any respect. I simply tried to catch the ball. There was no want to interrupt it up. Didn’t prefer it.”
McNeil was equally bothered by the lateness of the slide and getting spiked. Hoskins hit McNeil’s proper leg, which was off the bottom, and since the throw from Brett Baty was low and Adames ran effectively, McNeil by no means thought-about an try at a double play.
Shortstop Francisco Lindor supported McNeil’s response.
“He slid just a little late,” Lindor mentioned. “He slid straight via the bottom however I felt it was just a little late…. I want he slid just a little earlier. In terms of Jeff’s response, I’m with him one hundred pc.”
The league applied amendments to the sliding rule after a 2015 season wherein a variety of center infielders had been injured by sliding baserunners whereas protecting second base. Per MLB, when sliding right into a base in an try to interrupt up a double play, a runner has to make a “bona fide slide.”
That’s outlined because the runner making contact with the bottom earlier than reaching the bottom, with the ability to attain the bottom with a hand or foot, with the ability to stay on the bottom on the completion of the slide (besides at dwelling plate) and never altering his path for the aim of initiating contact with a fielder. The foundations are presupposed to mirror a spirit of participant security.
“That’s what’s sort of complicated,” McNeil mentioned. “I don’t know what the principles are, actually. What’s a clear slide? When is just too late? When is just too early? Do you simply have to remain on the bottom? There may be some fairly ugly slides. This recreation is about participant security. No person needs to get harm.”
To McNeil, slides fall into a number of classes: soiled, clear and in-between. He acknowledged that gamers need to play onerous. When requested the place he positioned Hoskins’ slide, McNeil mentioned, “It was a authorized slide, so I simply need to depart it at that.”
Required studying
(Picture of Jeff McNeil (left): Christopher Pasatieri / Getty Pictures)
