By Yours Truly
http://throneberryfields.com/2016/05/29/the-thumb-for-thor-was-too-hasty-saturday-night/Two weeks ago, Matt Bush hit Jose Bautista over a seven-month-old bat flip, a flip at a time Bush
wasn’t in a Rangers uniform. That plunk drew mere warnings to both the Rangers and the Blue Jays,
before Bautista tried to take Rougned Odor out of a double play and Odor shoved then punched
Bautista to trigger a bench-clearing brawl.
Saturday night, Noah Syndergaard threw one behind, not at or into Chase Utley in the third inning,
over a seven-month-old injurious takeout slide. That non-plunk got Syndergaard tossed immediately.
It also got Mets manager Terry Collins tossed at once when Collins, quite understandably, blasted out
from the dugout to confront plate ump Adam Hamari over that quick a hook over a non-contact
purpose pitch.
In the aftermath of the Rangers-Jays nonsense, Bush came away with nothing but a small fine. In the
aftermath of Saturday night’s Mets-Dodgers showdown, Syndergaard may be waiting for a fine and a
suspension. He shouldn’t have to wait for either. Something isn’t right about merely fining a pitcher for
a deliberate drill but preparing to dock a pitcher money and time for a non-contact toss behind a hitter.
With Syndergaard out, the Mets were forced to the bullpen early and often while the Dodgers destroyed
them, 9-1. Utley had a big hand in the destruction, too. He followed up not getting drilled in the third with
a solo home run in the sixth, off Logan Verrett, then squared up Hansel Robles an inning later for a grand
salami. Clearly enough the Mets’ pen men didn’t quite expect to go to work as early as they did.
Before you think about trying to compare Syndergaard’s non-plunk to Bush’s plunk-plunk, consider:
* Bush wasn’t even in organised baseball last October, never mind in the Rangers’ organisation. He had
absolutely
no history with Bautista. It boggles the mind that the Rangers’ brain trust thought about having
him drill Bautista with his first pitch upon coming into the final game of the season between the two.
(Unless, of course, Bush sought to ingratiate himself to his new teammates further.) Almost as much
as it boggles the mind that the Rangers waited until the final at-bat Bautista was likely to have against
them this year to send him a message over a measly bat flip.
* Syndergaard was the starting pitcher who looked in horror with everyone else last October when Utley
dropped into the slide heard ’round the world and shattered now former Met shortstop Ruben Tejada’s
leg. The slide that inspired the new rule governing takeout slides, often called the Utley Rule. Having such
a history with Utley Syndergaard had a lot more call to think about how and when to send the veteran
second baseman a message than Bush or the Rangers did with Bautista. (He could have sent it during the
Los Angeles leg of the Mets-Dodgers season series, but he didn’t. And at least he didn’t wait until Utley’s
likely final at-bat against the Mets this season, pending postseason access, of course.)
* Recall further that Syndergaard was the Met who decided to send the Royals a message about crowding
the plate too comfortably too soon in the World Series by using Royals leadoff pest Alcides Escobar—whom
only the blind wouldn’t have known was the heaviest plate crowder of the Series thus far—as his messenger,
starting Game Three with one of the most deftly-executed knockdown pitches on record, up and in and
nowhere near hitting Escobar. The Royals fumed but Syndergaard beat them with a masterpiece.
* It isn’t unreasonable to think that Hamari had that in the back of his mind, too, when deciding that
Syndergaard throwing behind Utley Saturday night was one message pitch too many even if the ball never
even grazed the Dodger second baseman. Utley may have planted a seed inadvertently, entering the set in
New York (the two teams squared off in Los Angeles a week earlier), when he said publicly that he still
expected a little payback and seemed fine with it.
Given all that, it was still a hook too quick and too unwarranted. If Syndergaard had thrown right at Utley’s
head or drilled him otherwise, Hamari would have had a lot more solid ground to toss him. Way more solid
than Dan Iassogna had in merely handing down the warnings after Bush drilled Bautista. And just how do
you get away with drilling a guy over merely flipping a bat after hitting a monstrous three-run homer but
you get immediate punishment for throwing behind a guy who tried to slice, dice, and chop your shortstop?
Among the Citi Field audience Saturday night was a contingent of 1986 Mets, a team that gave and took no
quarter (and weren’t afraid to send messages and back them up), and they were none too thrilled over the
quick hook Syndergaard got. (The Mets wore replica-1986 uniforms Saturday night, incidentally.) Dwight
Gooden was furious enough to leave the ballpark right after Thor got thumbed. “That’s weak,” Gooden told
the
New York Post after departing. “He didn’t hit the guy. He didn’t try to hurt him. Issue a warning, let ’em
continue playing. What he did was right.”
Days after Bush drilled Bautista, another Blue Jay, Josh Donaldson, the defending American League MVP,
nearly got hit with consecutive pitches by Minnesota’s Phil Hughes. There didn’t seem to be any known cause
for Hughes to think about sending Donaldson any messages (even if a Twins coach berated Donaldson for
alleged lack of hustle on an earlier play and Donaldson chirped back), and Donaldson fumed over the two
brushbacks. No ump even thought about throwing Hughes out of the game.
“The ruling was that he intentionally threw at the batter,” crew chief Tom Hallion the press about the
Syndergaard purge. “And with that, we have a judgment of whether we thought it was intentional. And if
it was, we can either warn or eject. And with what happened in that situation, we felt the ejection was
warranted.” So just how did Bush get away with drilling Bautista? How did Hughes get away with throwing
at Donaldson twice in the same plate appearance? Why disappear Syndergaard for not hitting Utley?
In Gooden’s words, that’s weak.
