New Milwaukee Brewers slugger Rhys Hoskins had an eventful first game of the season against the New York Mets in Citi Field, and his second game of the season – back in Queens against those same Mets – turned out to be no less eventful (MIL 7, NYM 6). Hoskins in Friday’s season opener for both teams nearly touched off a brawl when he slid hard – but not illegally – into Mets infielder Jeff McNeil at second base. As you’re about to see, things got heated in a hurry:
Hoskins also not-so-subtly called McNeil a crybaby.
The Brewers wound up winning that one by a count of 3-1. Given that the Mets’ second baseman was the affronted party, it was tempting to think of Saturday’s second contest of the series as the Jeff McNeil Revenge Game. Hoskins, though, had other ideas.
After some vigorous booing from the home fans, Hoskins in the first inning lined a two-run single off Mets starter Luis Severino, who wound up permitting six runs on 12 hits in five innings. Two innings later, Hoskins did this:
That’s his first home run of the season and the 149th of his career, which, prior to this season, had been entirely with the Phillies. Hoskins in the fifth picked up his third hit of the day, another line-drive single, and later scored on a balk.
Then his next time up in the seventh, Hoskins received this pitch from Mets reliever Yohan Ramírez:
Make your own judgments as to the intent – or lack thereof – of the pitch. Ramírez was ejected. Hoskins eventually walked, which meant he reached base for the fourth time on the afternoon.
“Big-leaguers don’t miss by eight feet,” Hoskins said after the game (via The Athletic). “Whether it was on purpose or not is really not for me to decide. But this game has had a way of policing itself for many, many years. So let’s focus on doing it the right way if we’re going to do that.”
Given the dramatics of the first two games of the series, we are honor-bound to point out that these same two clubs and their perhaps simmering mutual hostilities will get together again for the series finale on Sunday.
