Manager Buck Showalter was suspended for one game, with reliever Yoan López getting a three-game ban after Major League Baseball concluded that the New York Mets threw at Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber on purpose in the ninth inning of Sunday’s game.
Mike Puma of The New York Post was among those to report this. Both were also fined, but the value of the fines is unknown.
If López did indeed attempt to hit Schwarber — who already had two home runs in the game — he was unsuccessful:
But while Schwarber ultimately grounded out to first base, Alec Bohm was hit by a pitch a batter later. Notably — despite warnings being issued to both teams during the Schwarber at-bat — no ejections were made after Bohm was hit.
Phillies manager Joe Girardi said after Sunday’s loss that he didn’t believe Bohm was hit on purpose, but he admitted that he thought that the Mets did try to hit Schwarber in the previous at-bat.
“I think they were trying to hit him,” Girardi said to the media, including MLB.com‘s Todd Zolecki. “But that’s part of the game. We didn’t try to hit Lindor. We didn’t try to hit anyone there. But I understand. You get hit a few times, you start to take exception. I think we hit them with some breaking balls at our park, but it wasn’t on purpose.”
The Mets have been hit by a league-leading 20 pitches so far in 2022, including when Cristopher Sanchez plunked Francisco Lindor in the bottom of the eighth inning Sunday. By comparison, the Phillies have been hit by 10 pitches this year.
Glenn Sherlock, the team’s bench coach, is the acting manager in Monday evening’s crucial matchup against the defending World Series Champion Atlanta Braves.