Time got away from umpire during Mets' opener
The Mets' Jeff McNeil, left, hits a single to score Starling Marte during the sixth inning of an Opening Day game against the Marlins on Thursday in Miami. Credit: AP/Lynne Sladky
MIAMI — Jeff McNeil, as the game’s best pure hitter a year ago, knows just about all there is to know when standing in the batter’s box.
But Thursday’s season opener was one of those very rare occasions when McNeil felt clueless. It was the sixth inning, Starling Marte at third, Pete Alonso at first, with two outs. McNeil was down 0-and-1 after fouling off Sandy Alcantara’s opening 90-mph changeup.
Then confusion reigned.
Plate umpire Larry Vanover called timeout, pointed to Alonso at first, then hung an automatic strike two on a baffled McNeil. Solving Alcantara is impossible enough, never mind handing the NL Cy Young winner a freebie.
“It didn’t really make a lot of sense to me, because I was in the box ready to go,” McNeil said Friday afternoon, with almost a full 24 hours to digest the puzzling incident. “Pete is still getting back to the base, so I think the rules say the fielders and runners can have time to get back to their base and then the clock starts. I don’t think the clock ever started, so . . . ”
That was the point of contention here. In these particular spots, figuring out how long is too long falls to the umpiring crew, and Vanover may have jumped the gun in ringing up Alonso for the offense. At least that’s the story Buck Showalter was sticking to before Friday’s game, saying that he was visited by league officials who told him it was a mistake.
“They were wrong,” Showalter said. “It won’t happen again.”
He’s half-right. Umpires can assess a penalty in that situation, but generally, the protocol is to have an umpire issue a warning first to the baserunner, as McNeil mentioned. Showalter alluded to that later.
“Just a little thing, like say, hey let’s go,” Showalter said. “When I refereed basketball, it’s called ‘preventive officiating,’ where you say, hey, get out of the lane instead of blowing the whistle . . . They corrected everything and we’re in good shape. They came in today just to make sure everybody was straight on it, so I appreciate that.”
Showalter, who came out for an explanation he never really got at the time, had the luxury of being diplomatic afterward, since McNeil finished the AB by slapping an RBI single up the middle and the Mets went on to beat the Marlins, 5-3. You can bet he’d still be furious if McNeil came up empty in an Opening Day loss.
Either way, chalk up what happened to McNeil, Alonso and Showalter as a learning experience, a chance to sort out some gray area as quickly as possible only two days into this new pitch-clock season. Even McNeil, who tends to burn a little hot, could calmly write it off as an adjustment process for everyone involved.
“There was no warning or anything — and there’s no clock that says you took too long,” McNeil said. “He’s just like, yep, you took too long. I don’t think that’s what we’re going for. We’re not trying to do that. That was . . . interesting.”
Overall, MLB reported 14 pitch-clock violations from Opening Day, with the first committed by Marcus Stroman, the Cubs’ ace and former Patchogue-Medford star. Eight were credited to pitchers, four to hitters and one to a catcher. The Mets were the only team guilty of a baserunner violation, which apparently now deserves an asterisk.
McNeil certainly had a reasonable argument, but otherwise, the new rules had the desired impact on the sport. The average game time was 2:45 on Opening Day, a significant drop from 3:11 a year ago, and it was a track meet on the basepaths. The 21 stolen bases were the most for an Opening Day since 1907, with a 91.3% success rate (21-for-23). Marte, who led the Mets with 18 stolen bases last season, got his first Thursday in the fourth inning.
Showalter isn’t convinced yet that the pitch-clock regulations, which include only two pick-off attempts per at-bat, will translate to a huge spike in the stolen-base rate. He’ll need more evidence before drawing any conclusions. But the timer itself had a dramatic impact on the length of games during spring training — just like it did in the minors — and there’s no disputing the success. Commissioner Rob Manfred had to be ecstatic with the early data, as he’s made pace of game (and more action) his primary mission of the past decade.
Just as important, however, is to keep the integrity of the sport intact, which is why sorting out the McNeil incident had to be done quickly and definitively. Obviously, adjusting to the new rules is still going to take some time, even with the month head start provided by spring training. But the season can’t be sabotaged by any lingering discrepancies.
“It was tough,” McNeil said. “I like to swing anyway, so it wasn’t about seeing more pitches. It was just if I happen to miss this one pitch, that inning’s over and it was a big situation. But I was able to put it in play. And the baseball gods took care of it.”
Call it karmic justice. From a higher power than the umpiring crew.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
