Thick With Nuance and Stupidity

Let’s just get straight to the good stuff, because talking about an 8-0 loss and two home runs by Travis Ishikawa is just straight depressing.

So in the top of the seventh, D.J. Carrasco comes into the game and gives up a bomb to Rickie Weeks. With the next pitch he plunks N.L. MVP Ryan Braun, and home plate ump Gary Darling immediately tosses Carrasco out of the game. Now at the time I’m thinking, why would Darling immediately toss Carrasco without a warning to the benches? Now sure, it seems on the surface to be suspiciously like retaliation for Weeks’ home run. But these are the New York Mets, who over the last seven years have passed up legitimate opportunities to plunk guys. Why would a Mets pitcher plunk a guy for a stupid reason? Those who read my nonsense regularly know that I’m all for a Mets pitcher hitting a guy to protect a teammate or to send a message to a particular player for being an all-out douche bag (I’m looking at you, Shane). But hitting Braun was so ridiculous that it couldn’t have been on purpose. It had to be a pitch that just got away. I mean Carrasco stinks, right? A pitch getting away from him? Sure sounds plausible to me.

But … 

… then Terry Collins pulls David Wright from the game, and for good measure pulls Daniel Murphy too. And you know what, absolutely the right move. I know Wright went ballistic because he wanted to be the one to take one for the team. But the last thing that this club needs is for David Wright … and not just normal good player David Wright, but David Wright who is hitting four-freaking-hundred … to take a pitch to the wrist and break a myriad of bones or take another pitch to the head and then come back and have to wear that stupid Great Gazoo helmet again. Because if Wright has to wear that helmet again, the terrorists win. (Seriously, look at his face in this picture … he’s got those sad eyes like your dog got when you put that stupid cone on him.) And if his wrist is in a cast for six weeks then the rest of the division wins. Wright wants to be a man, great. And don’t get me wrong, I love him for it. But better to be a man not wearing a cast, a space helmet, or a Marcia Brady nose.

But the fact that Wright knows that he’s up for retaliation, and the fact that Terry Collins knew it was a possibility absolutely speaks volumes, as Ron Roenicke basically said after the game.

“He’s not getting hurt in that game tonight. Believe me, I’m not accusing them of anything. I just know what might have taken place and I was trying to avoid it.” –Terry Collins

“My thinking at the time was, Ryan gets hit and then I go up there and get hit and everything’s settled.” –David Wright

So even though they don’t know if the Brewers are going to gun for Wright, those quotes tell me they think it might come … and maybe, just maybe, that they know it might be deserved.

Now, Carrasco’s words: 

“I was just trying to throw a sinker in first pitch and it got away from me and hit him (…) It was a really quick decision. There was not even like a time to read my emotion or take into account the score of the game or the situation there that I was there to throw a few innings out of the bullpen. I’m not trying to get tossed out of the game two or three hitters into the game.”

First off, I don’t expect Carrasco to admit to plunking anybody. He’s not stupid … or at least he’s not Cole Hamels stupid. I would expect Carrasco, if he did hit him on purpose, to just say a pitch got away from him. But … a sinker? Now forgive me, because I never played the game at any high level. But can a sinker that gets away really hit somebody in the shoulder?

And the score of the game, I’d much sooner believe that D.J. would hit a guy down by eight runs in the seventh than I’d believe he’d hit Braun in a 3-2 game, just like I’d believe that Collins would be quicker to pull his stars down eight runs than in a 3-2 game. So as much as I want to believe you, Daniel J., and as much as I believed that it wasn’t intentional when it happened, I don’t anymore. I’m sorry. And even if he is telling the truth, fact is that he put his manager and his team in a bad position. And for what? Again, this team has passed up so many opportunities to plunk guys as a show of team solidarity, for this to happen this way and put guys in a bad position pisses me off.

(And no, it’s not about treating Wright better than the rest of the players on the team … Mr. Ojeda. You heard T.C., nobody’s hitting Jordany Valdespin. Think back to the Matt Cain incident, and see how many batters Johan Santana faced before he got to Pablo Sandoval with nobody on to retaliate … that’s right, the whole damn lineup.)

But whether I believe D.J. or not is one thing. The players in that clubhouse better believe him when they talk about the incident in-house. Because let’s face it: If the team doesn’t believe him, he’s gone. For heaven’s sake, it’s D.J. Carrasco. At this point in his dopey two-year deal, the Mets can cut him and not think anything of it. He wouldn’t be missed. Although I for one would let him finish his contract, and then make sure he gets an at-bat when the Mets go to Milwaukee in September. Just as I felt Matt Cain deserved to be hit rather than Sandoval after Wright got hit in the head, Carrasco needs to take this retribution by himself. That is … if the retribution isn’t just flat out being cut.

(Editor’s note: The one thing I’ll say is that everybody who pursued the line of thinking that Braun got hit because of the steroid thing … you all need to be hit with sticks. If that was the case, it would have happened already. And that reason is even dumber than hitting Braun because Weeks hit a home run. And if Carrasco did hit him because of the roid thing, then not only should Carrasco be cut, he should be forced to watch a Jersey Shore marathon of at least 24 hours so that whatever I.Q. points left in his head fall to the floor to be gnawed on by rats.)

(With all apologies to Snooki, because she’s a Mets fan.)