Jeff McNeil, Rhys Hoskins get heated during Brewers-Mets opener،
NEW YORK – Even on a new team in a different division, it took Rhys Hoskins just one game to upset the New York Mets.
Tempers flared Friday in the season opener at Citi Field when the Milwaukee Brewers newcomer — who agitated the Mets during his days with the NL East rival Phillies — slid hard into the outfielder. second baseman Jeff McNeil on a potential double play ball in the eighth. inning.
“Just a late slide. We had a little history, so I knew there was a chance it could come like that,” McNeil said after Milwaukee's 3-1 win. “I didn't like his slide. I wasn't trying to make a double play at all. I was just trying to catch the ball. There was no need to interrupt him.”
McNeil was visibly angry after the play, gesturing and yelling at Hoskins while the Milwaukee slugger was on the ground. Hoskins got up and headed toward the Brewers dugout, but benches and bullpens spilled onto the field.
Hoskins said he kept his cleats on the slide and he thought McNeil overreacted.
“I’m just trying to play baseball, right?” Hoskins said. “The last thing I want to do is give them a clear path to make a double play. So, someone took… McNeil took (exception) to my slide, but I didn't really thought about it, to be honest. I ended up hitting it, but that's what happens with a game that develops slowly.
The teams remained separated and there was no pushing and shoving, although Hoskins rubbed his eyes as if to call McNeil a crybaby, and McNeil insulted Hoskins from across the diamond.
“Some choice words. But, you know, I've played in this stadium a lot, and he just seems to complain when things aren't going well and I think this is one of those times,” Hoskins said. “Maybe a little lost in the heat of the moment. But again, I think it was just about playing the game hard and playing the game the right way.”
Even before Hoskins hit McNeil's leg, McNeil moved the ball as he tried to transfer it to his throwing hand after third baseman Brett Baty's low throw. There was therefore no relay to the first.
“He had some pretty questionable slides at second base, that’s for sure,” McNeil said. “I distinctly remember watching some in the past that were absolutely not OK. So I knew there was a possibility of that happening. And that's what happened.”
Hoskins said that after the play, he initially stayed in the dirt to let McNeil let off some steam.
“I kind of laid there afterward. A few guys said, I thought maybe you got hurt. But I was just letting whatever McNeil needed out, letting him get it out ” Hoskins said. “And I kind of walked off the field after that and I got to see everyone on the team there.”
Hoskins and the Mets have had problems before. New York reliever Jacob Rhame vomited and hit Hoskins multiple times in 2019, and the slugger took 34 seconds to trot around the bases on a home run against the Mets.
Hoskins missed last season with Philadelphia because of a knee injury, then signed a two-year, $34 million contract with Milwaukee in January to become the team's new first baseman.
“You have a guy who misses a year and it's horrible to see. And then you go back and try to put a spike in someone's leg. It's tough,” McNeil said. “I don't want to wish injury on anyone. It's tough to see him miss a year. I felt extremely bad when I saw him go down. Just a tough circumstance there.”
The Mets challenged the play for a sliding violation, but the call was upheld after a replay review.
“It's a late slide. Obviously we didn't like it, Jeff didn't like it, but it's legal,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He kept the base and it's considered legal. Apparently there's some history between them too, and that's what got Jeff hot there.”
Asked if he thought the slide was clean or dirty, McNeil replied, “It was a legal slide, so I just want to leave it at that.”
McNeil also said he wasn't looking for any retaliation for the rest of the weekend.
“I hope not. I don't want it to be anything,” he said. “I just want to play good baseball and try to win the series.”
