Alexa, “Lean on Me.”
The Mets won 3–2 in their home opener on Thursday, but in typical Mets fashion, it came with two dashes of drama and part contention.
With the bases, an out and a tie game with Michael Conforto, the Mets’ outfielder bent into a pitch in the strike zone, which would have been good for strike 3 and out number 2. Instead, the umpires said Conforto was hit by a pitch, forcing the home to win.
While the play is worth reviewing whether the ball has actually hit him – which he did – Conforto’s intent cannot be reviewed.
But as a rule, the player should try to get away from the pitch. Instead, Conforto pulled out his hand to make contact with the ball. Game over. Some speculated that Conforto was fooled by the pitch, which may have been the case.
To make matters more interesting, home plate ump Ron Kulpa noticed that he was going to play Conforto for a strike, but changed his mind.
The umpire has the power to grant and reverse the call, even though that is not what Conforto intended, to be a reviewing call. The rule book also states that if a ball hits a batsman, but lands a pitch within the strike zone, there may be a strike on the pitch.
Marlins manager Don Mattingly argued with the umpires, with many Marlins also attempting to hear their case – to no avail.
SNY Booth, which included former Mets Keith Hernández and Ron Darling, admitted that Conforto bowed to the pitch and kept the umpires onus to get the call right, which, well, they did not.
It’s just one of 162, but it wouldn’t be Metball Baseball if it wasn’t memorable in some way, right?
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