Mets, Brewers clear benches after Rhys Hoskins’ hard slide left Jeff McNeil fuming
A sleepy Opening Day at Citi Field got some fire in the top of the eighth — and it involved a familiar foe, even if Rhys Hoskins was in a new uniform.
The longtime Mets’ nemesis from his days with the Phillies made his first impact with the Brewers with a questionable slide into second that nearly took out Jeff McNeil.
In a two-run game the Brewers ended up winning 3-1 at Citi Field, McNeil shouted at Hoskins while the Brewer was still on the base and continued jawing at him as Hoskins left the field, which led to the benches clearing, but no punches were thrown.
Afterwards, there were conflicting opinions on Hoskins’ slide, which came on a Willy Adames grounder to third that had a chance of becoming a double play to end the inning.
McNeil got the forceout, but dropped the ball on the transfer.
The Mets challenged the play, questioning whether it was a legal slide, and after a video review, it was still ruled legal.
“I’m just trying to play baseball, right?” Hoskins said. “We’ve got a chance in the eighth, with a runner on, to tack on another run. The last thing I want to do is give them a clear lane to make a double play. A certain someone, McNeil, took [exception] to my slide, but I didn’t really think much of it. I ended up hitting him, but that’s what happens with a slow developing play.”
McNeil said of the play, “Just a late slide. We’ve had a little bit of a past, so I knew there was a chance that he’d be coming in like that. Didn’t like his slide.”
He also disagreed with Hoskins’ take on what he was hoping to do on the play.
“I wasn’t trying to turn the double play at all,” McNeil said. “I was just trying to catch the ball. There was no need to break it up.”
Hoskins said McNeil had “a few choice words” for him.
Hoskins also yelled back at McNeil from the dugout and mimicked wiping away tears.
McNeil was left wondering why the rules that have been implemented for player safety don’t impact plays like Hoskins’ slide, noting that Hoskins hit his right leg, which was further away from the bag.
It’s just the latest dustup between Hoskins and the Mets.
The first baseman famously took an extraordinarily lengthy home run trot against the Mets in 2019 after being nearly plunked twice in a previous game.
“I’ve played in this ballpark a bunch and he seems to be complaining when things aren’t going well,’’ Hoskins said of McNeil. “I think that’s kind of [one of] those moments, maybe lost in the heat of the game a little bit. I think it’s just playing the game hard and playing the right way.”
Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy called it “just good hard-nosed baseball.”
The Mets had a different view.
“Rhys slid past the bag,” Pete Alonso said. “He slid late. I mean, it’s one thing playing hard, but going and getting him … it’s happened before in the past. When he was with Philly, he went and got Jeff multiple times. I know he didn’t really get him that hard or slide into him, but he’s definitely slid past the bag and went and gotten Jeff before. So it’s happened a lot in the past.”
And now you can add another one to the list, with McNeil adding he felt lucky that he didn’t get injured.
“I’m actually really fortunate that [Brett] Baty didn’t really hit me in the chest,’’ McNeil said of Baty’s low throw from third. “If he hits me in the chest there, that’s one of the ugliest slides I’m going to see all season. … It’s sort of made up in his mind of what he’s going to do.”
It also came in Hoskins’ first game back after missing all of last season with a torn ACL.
Clearly, he hasn’t changed the way he plays.
“You get a guy who misses a year and that’s horrible to see,” McNeil said. “And then you go right back and spike someone’s leg. It’s tough.”
Asked if he considered it a “dirty slide,” McNeil said, “[It was a] legal slide, so [I] want to leave it at that.”
