The Mets have had more batters hit by pitches than any other team in baseball, and they’ve had their share of especially scary incidents of batters being hit in the head area.
On Tuesday night, it happened again.
In the top of the eighth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals, with the Mets up 2-0 in a game they’d eventually win 3-0, Pete Alonso was drilled by a Kodi Whitley pitch in the helmet, the second time this season that’s happened to him. Alonso ducked out of the way and his helmet was slightly off his head when the ball made contact, but it got the Mets’ dugout – manager Buck Showalter included – up in arms.
Alonso’s hit-by-pitch was the 17th instance by a Met this season, and Starling Marte became the 18th when he was hit with the bases loaded to force in a run the next inning.
"It’s a problem we have in MLB in general … my concern is about our team," Showalter said afterwards. "You talk to a lot of pitchers about the grip and what have you, but all of those things don’t really – I think we’re leading baseball by, what, six or seven (hit batters) now? It’s one thing to get hit in the toe or knee, but we’re getting a lot of balls in the head and the neck, and it’s just not good. Not good.
"You care about your players, and without getting into right and wrong and what have you, you reach a point where it’s about safety of your players. We’re lucky. You’re talking about a pitch that broke his helmet. It’s not good, I’m not happy."
According to Showalter, Alonso passed all concussion testing on Tuesday night, but he will probably get the day off on Wednesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Chris Bassitt had a fantastic night on the mound, going six shutout innings while allowing just two hits.
But the veteran did not hold back after the game when asked about his teammates getting hit and the state of the baseballs being used this season throughout the game.
"It’s extremely annoying to see your teammates constantly get hit, and if you get hit by certain pitches it is what it is, but to get hit in the head the amount that we’re getting hit is unbelievable," said Bassitt. "I had some close calls tonight, and I’ve been hit in the face (by a line drive) and I don’t want to do that to anybody ever, but MLB has a very big problem with the baseballs. They’re bad.
"Everyone in the league knows it. Every pitcher knows it. They’re bad. They don’t care. MLB doesn’t give a damn about it. They don’t care. We’ve told them our problems with them, and they don’t care.
"They’re all different. The first inning they’re decent, the third inning they’re bad, the fourth inning they’re okay, the fifth inning they’re bad. Then we have different climates and everything is different. There’s no common ground with the balls, nothing the same outing to outing. They’re bad."
Showalter has previously made a point to advocate for a universal substance pitchers can use to improve their grip, and Bassitt was asked about that as a possibility on Tuesday as well.
"There’s a million things we’ve suggested. I won’t go into that, but there’s a million things we’ve suggested to not hurt offense," Bassitt said. "I know that’s why they want nothing on the ball, is for offense, and there’s ways to do that, and they don’t want to do that. … It’s too easy to fix to constantly see guys get hit in the head over and over and over and not do anything about it.
"How long are we going to let this happen?"
James McCann, who had a nice night at the plate with three hits, also chimed in on the issue, offering his solution to the problem.
"My take is it’s 2022 and there’s enough technology out there to figure out the baseballs," said McCann.
"As far as I’m concerned, put an on-deck circle behind the mound, give them a pine tar rag and the sunscreen and rosin and let them use that stick. That stuff has proven that it’s not going to improve somebody’s arsenal, it’s going to give them grip. Now if you want to talk about Spider Tack and all this other stuff, yeah, get that out of the game. I agree with that. But give them an on-deck circle just like the hitters have.
"Let them have a grip on the baseball."