The Mets and Cardinals cleared benches and got into a scrum on Wednesday afternoon in St. Louis.
What caused it you might ask? Well, what else than another Met being hit in the game. Genesis Cabrera, on a 3-2 pitch in the top of the eighth inning, threw a fastball directly into J.D. Davis‘ foot and he had to come out of the game because of it.
The next inning, Yoan Lopez‘s first pitch for the Mets was up and in on Nolan Arenado, and he immediately took exception, screaming at Lopez, and the benches cleared shortly after.
Arenado was eventually ejected from the game after the scrum was separated, though Lopez was able to continue pitching.
After the game, Mets manager Buck Showalter was asked if he believed things go to a point where a message had to be sent.
“No, we had a good road trip. Quite frankly, I think we’re all tired of talking about it,” said Showalter. “We understand it’s newsworthy, but the team had another good road trip and we’re playing well. Just ran into some things today that we couldn’t overcome, so we’re looking forward to getting in front of some friendly fans.”
“I’ll let them handle their players,” Showalter said about Arenado taking exception to the up-and-in pitch. “I know our player got hit in the head and went to first base.”
The Mets have now been hit by a pitch 19 times in 20 games.
Both of these teams also play again very soon, as the Cardinals are scheduled to travel to Queens for a May 16-19 series.