Saturday was shaping up to be the sort of 5-3 Mets loss you instantly forget about, until the bottom of the eighth inning.
That was when a Jose Soriano curveball found the back of Pete Alonso’s head, and a season’s worth of frustration — maybe two seasons worth — spilled out onto the baseball field.
Both dugouts and benches cleared after Alonso exchanged words with Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe — the Mets jumping to defend Alonso after yet another pitch buzzed him.
Mets pitching did not retaliate, but Alonso’s anger was shared team-wide, but the fracas was quickly broken up.
The first baseman exited the game with a trainer for pinch-runner Danny Mendick and was listed as having a neck injury, though the prognosis from manager Buck Showalter was positive.
“He wanted to stay in the game,” Showalter said following the game. “I don’t know if these guys realize how lucky they are with Pete. I talked to him. He seemed to be doing OK. He passed the concussion protocol. We’ll see how he is [Sunday].”
Yet again the Mets are crossing their fingers regarding Alonso, who was forced to the injured list in June after being struck by a pitch in his left wrist in Atlanta.
Alonso has been hit an NL-leading 18 times, and the Mets have been drilled 84 times — only trailing the Mariners — after they were plunked a record 112 times last season.
For someone who has preached a lack of retaliation following these sorts of incidents, Showalter did seem like he wanted to hit, well, something.
It was clearly not intentional, with Soriano throwing a curveball, but Showalter seemed to be at the end of his rope.
“You get to the point where intention doesn’t really play into it as much,” he said. “My job is to try to keep a sense of reality and safety of everybody.
“Everybody’s chasing velocity now and I’m worried again. Their bullpen and other bullpens. And with that comes a lack of command. With that comes people getting hit. It’s not good for the game.
“Everybody keeps chasing this and it’s a by-product of it. You throw like that and you throw inside, you’re not necessarily trying to hit somebody but you’re taking that chance of hitting people like that. Somewhere along the line, there’s gotta be something to pay for that. Whether it be from the league office or something. You’re seeing it every night. These guys are ducking 100-mile-an-hour fastballs all over baseball, and especially Pete. And I’m not happy about it.”
Alonso did not talk to reporters after the game, having left Citi Field and gone home.
But Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor said that while it wasn’t intentional, he understood Alonso’s anger at the situation.
“After the game, he doesn’t look well,” Lindor said. “In a way of like, he’s worried. This is not the first time that happens. Hopefully tomorrow he comes in and he’s ready to go and he get back to hitting home runs.”
The Mets continue to get hit and continue to not throw at opposing batters in return. Lindor is not endorsing an eye-for-an-eye edict, and he agreed the plunking was unintentional. But he said he did not know what the club should do.
“I don’t know the right answer,” Lindor said.
