We have our first (almost) BASEBRAWL of the season, folks.
Tensions had been brewing for much of this three-game series between the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets amid a flurry of hit by pitches. And on Wednesday, those tensions finally boiled over.
The Mets have complained about their hit by pitch rate this season, which leads the league with 19 hit batsmen — almost twice that of the next closest team. And on Tuesday night, Pete Alonso was hit on the helmet with a pitch for the second time this season, sparking pitcher Chris Bassitt to call out MLB over the baseballs.
Now, come Wednesday’s finale, the Cardinals were probably expecting retaliation from the Mets. But the game generally went smoothly until J.D. Davis was hit on the foot by a pitch and had to leave the game in the eighth inning.
J.D. Davis is hit in the foot with a pitch.
Ronnie: "How can you miss that badly on a 3-2 pitch?" pic.twitter.com/xHllYvQ2oY
— SNY (@SNYtv) April 27, 2022
While it’s hard to imagine anyone intentionally hitting a batter on a 3-2 pitch, that 96 mph fastball from Genesis Cabrera had to hurt. So, the Cardinals went into the bottom half of the inning on edge for that possible retribution (because, baseball’s lame unwritten rules and whatnot). Nolan Arenado led off the inning, and as an MLB All-Star, he was an obvious candidate to throw at.
There was just one problem: Mets pitcher Yoan Lopez didn’t really throw at Arenado.
Here's that full benches-clearing sequence. You can see Cardinals coach Stubby Clapp throwing Pete Alonso to the ground around the 0:24 mark. pic.twitter.com/sTgo1hyvY4
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) April 27, 2022
The first pitch of the inning was slightly up and in, but it wasn’t going to hit Arenado even if he didn’t move out of the way.
Arenado didn’t care. He started shouting at Lopez and the entire situation escalated when catcher Tomas Nido — trying to calm Arenado down — got tossed aside. You can see that Pete Alonso was wrestled to the ground during the bench-clearing incident too.
