NEW YORK – The New York Mets were credited with the winning run on a controversial pitch when they defeated the Miami Marlins 3-2 on Thursday night while playing with an audience for the first time in 557 days at Citi Field.
On the day he turned 29, Jeff McNeil tied the game by hitting a solo homerun in the bottom of the ninth. After New York got the bases loaded with one out, Michael Conforto appeared to move his right elbow pad close enough to the strike zone to be brushed off by a breaking pitch on a 1-2 score from closer Anthony Bass.
Plate umpire Ron Kulpa, who also heads the umpire group, ruled that Conforto was hit by the pitch and the batter was on his way to first base while Luis Guillorme scored the run that led to the Mets party.
Marlins players Don Mattingly had a falling out with Kulpa before an appeal was made against a play review. The review lasted 58 games, confirming the decision.
Under the rules, if a batter is hit by a pitch in the strike zone, the pitch must be called as a strike.
The judgment can be used to determine that a pitch has hit a batter, but whether the ball has hit the batter in or out of the strike area is a decision left to the umpire and not a video judgment.
Mattingly noted that the referees explained to him that the ball that hit Conforto was in the strike zone could not be searched – only to determine that Conforto was hit by a pitch.
The official explanation from the replays supervisor in Manhattan went as follows: “After looking at all the relevant angles, the review definitively determined that the ball hit the batter. The decision has been confirmed, it was a bull’s eye ”.
“A victory is a victory. It’s over, but I’d like to use the bat next time, ”Conforto said.
Puerto Rican Edwin Díaz (1-0) scored the win by taking a hitless inning in his first appearance of the season.
Bass (0-2) has ruined both his save possibilities with the Marlins (1-6) and lost in both games.
McNeil homered in the opening of the ninth and placed a 3-1 second tier bid from the right field grandstand.
For the Marlins, Venezuelans Jesús Aguilar 4-1, an RBI; and Miguel Rojas 4-0. The Dominican Starling Marte 3-0.
For the Mets, Puerto Rican Francisco Lindor 3-1, scored one. The Dominican Jonathan Villar 4-0.