Very rarely will you come across a player who wants to be hit by a pitch, but Tuesday night in New York was an exception. During the seventh inning of the Brewers blowout win over the Mets, Ryan Braun was hit in the shoulder with a D.J. Carrasco fastball. The umpire felt that there was obvious intent, so Carrasco was ejected.
With David Wright due to lead off in the bottom of the seventh, retaliation was expected to come immediately. Mets manager Terry Collins anticipated that the Brewers would try to get even by hitting New York’s star player, so he pulled Wright from the game. That led to a very heated discussion between Collins and Wright in the dugout.
“He said, ‘If somebody gets hit, it should be me,’ ” Collins said according to the NY Post. “And I said, ‘It’s not going to be you. We have enough problems now. So you’re not hitting.’
“He’s a pro. He said, ‘Look, I’ll take this for the club.’ Not tonight you’re not.”
Collins also removed Daniel Murphy from the game two batters later for the same reason. Although Wright was clearly upset with his manager during the game, he insisted after the game that the tirade was not directed at Collins.
“My thinking at the time was, Ryan gets hit and then I go up there and get hit and everything’s settled,” Wright explained. “That’s something we’ll take care of in here. Whatever decision Terry makes, I’m on board 100 percent.”
While the media may try to blow the Collins-Wright argument up onto a clubhouse issue, I’m sure that is hardly the case. Disagreements happen all the time, and no manager could be angry with a player for wanting to get hit by a pitch to protect his teammates. There are plenty of more worthwhile things for a manager and player to have a legitimate feud over.
Photo credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE
