Pitch clock taking time for Mets to get used to
The Mets' Carlos Carrasco talks with umpire Alan Porter during the fifth inning of a game against the Brewers on Monday in Milwaukee. Credit: AP/Aaron Gash
MILWAUKEE — The pitch clock is the same for all teams, but it felt shorter for the Mets on Monday.
They were charged with four violations — two automatic balls for starter Carlos Carrasco, one automatic strike for Omar Narvaez and one automatic strike (for strike three) for Mark Canha — in a 10-0 loss to the Brewers. Milwaukee had none.
Carrasco’s first came before he even threw a pitch in his season debut.
“The clock was a little different pace today,” said manager Buck Showalter, who noted that the Mets didn’t have issues with it during four games in Miami. “We didn’t make a very good adjustment with it.”
Canha’s was quirky because it resulted in the end of his at-bat. He explained that he stepped out of the box after a pitch that confused him and waited to look at the stadium radar gun display, but the velocity — which would have helped him figure out what pitch it was — never displayed.
“I was sitting there waiting,” he said. “And then something like ‘Go Brewers!’ went up on the scoreboard or something, so I was like, all right, I guess I’m not getting the velocity. I step in the box and there were, like, six seconds left.”
Batters have to be in the box and looking at the pitcher by the time the clock hits eight seconds. Plate umpire Alan Porter, “one of the best umpires in the game,” according to Showalter, called him out.
“I tried to talk to Alan, the umpire, give me a break or give me a warning or something,” Carrasco said of his pre-first pitch violation. “He just went right away. But that’s part of the game. I respect that.”
Showalter said: “Everybody is going through some adjustment period. It’s umpires, it’s clock operators, it’s us, it’s other teams we’re playing. You better figure it out, because it’s not going away.”
Trivia time
The Mets’ finale in Miami on Sunday yielded a trivia question: Who was on the mound for the team’s first strikeout via pitch clock violation?
That was righthander Dennis Santana, who had just entered in relief in the sixth inning and had Avisail Garcia in a full count. When Garcia was not ready by the time the pitch clock reached eight seconds, plate umpire Edwin Moscoso charged him with strike three.
Without missing a beat, Santana threw the ball to third baseman Eduardo Escobar, as a catcher would after a regular bases-empty strikeout.
A day later, Santana still got a kick out of the sequence.
“I was waiting to get a sign to start pitching, then I saw the umpire rung him up,” he said through an interpreter Monday. “I felt kind of weird, so I didn’t know whether to keep the ball or throw it around. So I figured I’d just throw it around the horn.”
Extra bases
The Mets released Darin Ruf on Sunday, according to their transactions page. He is a free agent . . . During introductions before the Brewers’ home opener, ex-Brewers Omar Narvaez and especially Daniel Vogelbach received applause from Milwaukee fans . . . Pregame ceremonies also included a flyover and fireworks. The ballpark’s roof was closed . . . Former Atlanta catcher William Contreras, now with Milwaukee, no longer uses “Narco” by Blasterjaxx and Timmy Trumpet — famously Edwin Diaz’s entrance music — as his walk-up song . . . Showalter said the Mets will consider calling up a reliever before Tuesday’s game. They have zero healthy relievers on the 40-man roster in the minors but can make room — by moving any of Edwin Diaz, Jose Quintana or others to the 60-day injured list — if needed.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
