NEW YORK — Jeff McNeil said Friday he had no intention of reversing a double play in the eighth inning. Brett Batty's throw from third base was low, so McNeil didn't have enough time to catch the ball, turn, and throw to Willie Adams running down the first base line. he knew that. Rhys Hoskins wasn't. Approaching the second base bag at full speed, Hoskins slipped, knocking McNeil to his knees and kicking the ball out of his glove.
McNeil climbed out, pointed at Hoskins and began yelling. The Mets second baseman thought the play was unnecessary, if not completely dirty. As McNeil puts it, Hoskins was trying to “put a spike in someone's foot.” Mr. Hoskins disagreed. Replay staff similarly reviewed the slides and determined they were legal.
“It's just a late slide,” McNeil said, noting that second baseman Hoskins has made “some pretty questionable slides” in the past. “We had a little bit of history, so we knew he could come in like that. We just didn't like his slide.”
When McNeil attacked Hoskins with his jaw, the bench and bullpen emptied, but only verbal jabs were exchanged. The referees quickly restored order and the Brewers defeated the Mets 3-1.
“I just want to play baseball, you know?” Hoskins said. “We have a runner in the eighth inning and we have a chance to score another run, but the last thing we want to do is allow them to hit a double play. Someone brought up my slide exception, but McNeil took the exception. But to be honest, I didn't really think about it. I ended up hitting him, but that's what happens on slow plays, and I tried to keep him from hitting into a double play. ing.”
The Mets are well aware of MLB's slide rule, but the league revised it after the 2015 season after Chase Utley slid late in the National League Division Series and broke Ruben Tejada's leg. did. Current rules state that runners must make a “bona fide slide,” defined as:
Hoskins checked all those boxes with his slide to second base, grabbing the base with his right hand and holding onto it even as most of his body slipped away. However, Mets players noted the difference between illegal sliding and what Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor called an “ugly play.”
“Every time something like that happens, it's not a good thing,” Lindor said. “I feel like it was a slow slide, but they didn't say it was illegal. I mean, this is a legal, slow slide. … He didn't go to base.”
“Some slides are dirty, some are clean, and some are in between,” McNeil added. “It's a gray line. It wasn't called. It's a shame. … It was a legal slide, so we'd like to keep it that way.”
Brewers manager Pat Murphy disputed the idea that it was a dirty play.
Murphy's definition was “just high-quality, hard-nosed baseball.'' “We expect that from all of our players and we expect that from all of our opponents.”
Part of McNeil's anger stems from the Mets' history with Hoskins, a longtime Philly player who has drawn New York's ire in the past. Most notably, during a 2019 game at Citi Field, Hoskins hit a home run off Rhehme the night after Mets relief pitcher Jacob Rehm threw two pitches near Hoskins' head, emptying the bench. It took him 34 seconds to hit the ball and circle the bases.
McNeil also expressed surprise that Hoskins, who missed all of last season rehabbing a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, would attempt such a slide in his first regular-season game back from injury. He said Hoskins did not stand up immediately after the incident, but there were no concerns about his health. Instead, Hoskins “just let McNeil get out, whatever he needed to get out.”
“I've played in this ballpark a lot of times, and he just — he seems to complain when things aren't going well. I think that's one of those moments,” Hoskins said. . “Maybe the intensity of the game got the best of us a little bit. But again, I think the important thing is just to play the game hard and play the game the right way.”