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 in 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 immediately began pointing at Hoskins and yelling at him. McNeil had fumbled the ball on the transfer, losing a shot at a double play, and it looked like Hoskins caught the infielder’s left ankle with his spikes beyond the bag.
The benches cleared half-heartedly, and a replay review confirmed that Hoskins’ slide into the base was legal.
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While this is Hoskins’ first game with the Brewers, he and the Mets have a history dating back to his time with the Philadelphia Phillies. McNeil said the history between him and Hoskins extends beyond the slow trot of the home run and includes “some pretty questionable slides at second base.” McNeil said he remembered some in the past that “definitely were not OK.”
“We’ve had a little bit of a past so I knew there was a chance he’d be coming in like that, and just didn’t like the slide,” McNeil said. “I wasn’t trying to turn the double play at all. I just tried to catch the ball. There was no need to break it up. Didn’t like it.”
Hoskins said he was simply trying to keep the inning alive.
“I’m just trying to play baseball, right?” Hoskins said. “We got a chance in the eighth with a runner on to tack on another run. And the last thing I want to do is give them a clear lane to make a double play. So, a certain someone took — McNeil took — (exception) to my slide, but I didn’t really think much of it, to be honest.
“I ended up hitting him. But that’s what happens with a slow-developing play and we’re trying to make sure he doesn’t turn a double play.”
Hoskins said he stayed on the dirt an extra moment — “whatever McNeil needed to get out, let him get it out,” he said — but could not repeat what McNeil told him.
“A few choice words,” said Hoskins. “But I’ve played in this ballpark a bunch. He just seems to be complaining when things aren’t going well, and I think that was kind of one of those moments. Maybe lost in the heat of the game a little bit, but I think it’s just playing the game hard and playing it the right way.”
Hoskins guessed McNeil must have an issue with him from their history in Mets versus Phillies games, which are often hotly contested.
“I’m sure there is, because that’s how rivalries go, specifically with me or just with the team that I was on,” he said. “Not trying to hurt the guy, the cleats are low. Obviously (MLB) deemed that it was a safe slide. And again, I’m just trying to protect my guy that hit the ground ball and continue the inning.”
McNeil was equally bothered by the lateness of the slide and getting spiked. Hoskins hit McNeil’s right leg, which was off the base, and because the throw from Brett Baty was low and Adames ran well, McNeil never considered an attempt at a double play.
Shortstop Francisco Lindor supported McNeil’s reaction.
“He slid a little late,” Lindor said. “He slid straight through the base but I felt it was a little late…. I wish he slid a little earlier. When it comes to Jeff’s reaction, I’m with him 100 percent.”
McNeil said he hoped the altercation wasn’t something that leads to any retribution and said he was focused on trying to win the series.
The league implemented amendments to the sliding rule after a 2015 season in which a number of middle infielders were injured by sliding baserunners while covering second base. Per MLB, when sliding into a base in an attempt to break up a double play, a runner has to make a “bona fide slide.”
That is defined as the runner making contact with the ground before reaching the base, being able to reach the base with a hand or foot, being able to remain on the base at the completion of the slide (except at home plate) and not changing his path for the purpose of initiating contact with a fielder. The rules are supposed to reflect a spirit of player safety.
“That’s what’s kind of confusing,” McNeil said. “I don’t know what the rules are, really. What is a clean slide? When is too late? When is too early? Do you just have to stay on the base? There can be some pretty ugly slides. This game is about player safety. Nobody wants to get hurt.”
To McNeil, slides fall into a few categories: dirty, clean and in-between. He acknowledged that players want to play hard. When asked where he placed Hoskins’ slide, McNeil said, “It was a legal slide, so I just want to leave it at that.”
Required reading
(Photo of Jeff McNeil (left): Christopher Pasatieri / Getty Images)
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