“You’re the worst, you’re the worst I’ve seen.”
Daniel Murphy and David Wright were both tossed out of the game in the seventh inning on Sunday after arguing what they thought was a low strike zone by home plate umpire Toby Basner.
Both players were in the dugout when they were ejected and reports say they each went ballistic after watching catcher Travis d’Arnaud called out looking at strike three.
“Everybody who watched the game knows, I don’t think I have to say anything else about it,” Murphy said after the Mets’ 14-2 loss to the Angels. “A ‘disagreement’ was the best way to describe it.”
Wright refrained from giving his side to what happened.
“I’m not going to get into that,” Wright said. “I’m not going to get into more trouble than I already am. There were some disagreements.”
Both Wright and Murphy already had their own altercations with Basner earlier in the game. Murphy started for first base after a 3-2 pitch believing he had drawn a walk, only to realize he was called out on strikes, and Wright stepped out of the batter’s box and went at it with the ump over a very low called strike.
The umpire was awful and his strike zone was lower than I’ve seen in a long time. However, he was consistent with it – at least against the Mets he was.
The Mets struck out eleven times in the game and that brings their total to 122 through 12 games – averaging more than ten a game. That’s the worst mark in the majors.
Murphy, Wright and d’Arnaud were all rung up unfairly in my opinion, by an umpire who seemed to enjoy punishing the team with his comical calls. It was good to see Murphy and Wright defend d’Arnaud as they did. Props for that… But let’s not overlook the fact the Mets are on pace to smash the all time modern record for strikeouts in a season. That’s a bigger problem than three bad calls from a substitute ump.
(Animated gif by Daily Stache)
