Noah Syndergaard was ejected in the 3rd inning against the Dodgers for throwing a 1-0 pitch behind the back of Chase Utley. An infuriated Terry Collins was also ejected.
The pitch did not hit him.
Before leaving the game, Syndergaard had thrown just 34 pitches in 2.1 innings, allowing two hits and striking out three, consistently hitting triple digits with his fastball.
The umpire presumably threw him out because he thought it was on purpose, in retaliation for Utley’s dirty slide in last year’s NLDS which broke Ruben Tejada‘s leg.
Was it on purpose? Probably. Thor is an Avenger, after all.
Chase Utley then watched three straight strikes from reliever Logan Verrett to strike out looking.
However, before the night was over Utley would hit a solo home run off Verrett in the sixth, and then a blasted a grand slam against Hansel Robles in the seventh to put the Dodgers up 6-0.
After the game, Terry Collins spoke with reporters and said he’s concerned about MLB possibly disciplining Syndergaard with a suspension.
Collins also said that he warned his pitchers earlier in Los Angeles not to do anything that might draw retaliation and get Mets batters hurt, but he didn’t think he needed to address it again before this series.
Meanwhile, Syndergaard insisted the pitch was not on purpose and that he was stunned when the home plate umpire ejected him. He said the pitch simply slipped from his grip.
Home plate umpire Adam Hamari issued the following statement after the game.
“The ruling was that he intentionally threw at the batter, and with that, we have a judgement of whether we thought it was intentional, and if it it was, we can either warn or eject. And with what happened in that situation, we felt the ejection was warranted.”
As our own Michael Mayer pointed out on Twitter, Chase Utley had two homers and five RBI against the Mets on the same day Ruben Tejada gets designated for assignment. Such irony.
Here is how it went down, courtesy of Fox Sports:
