The Pirates Scored Three Runs On An Infield Meltdown When The Mets Literally Threw A Fair Ball Away

The Pittsburgh Pirates have blessed us with a good amount of weird baseball already this season, but in this case they had an extremely good day thanks to a meltdown from the New York Mets. Two of the National League’s most chaotic teams squared off on Sunday and early on saw a player quite literally throw a fair ball away to allow three runs to score.

With the Pirates already up 3-0 in the bottom of the first inning and the bases loaded against struggling pitcher Taijuan Walker, Kevin Newman swung and hit a dribbler that initially was in foul territory. And then, well, everything went wrong for the Mets. The ball was spinning on the line, and slowly moved back into fair territory.

Walker, somewhat bizarrely, tried to sweep it back into foul ground to avoid the ball moving into play. Even though they could have gotten a force at home with the bases loaded and a rare out in the inning, that’s a thing he decided to do. Which was blown up when the umpire declared the ball fair before he threw it way into foul territory.

As the Pirates all circle the bases, the Mets do… several things that do not stop the other team from scoring. Some argue that it was a foul ball, while the rest stand around looking at the ball laying in foul territory but still live. Three Pirates score, Mets manager Luis Rojas ran out to argue and was immediately ejected when he bumped the umpire. But the play still stood, and the Pirates were up 6-0 in the first.

Even Jon Stewart said the Mets are trying to kill him.

It’s important to note that the Mets blew a 6-run lead to Pittsburgh on Saturday night, losing on a walk-off grand slam. So maybe Stewart isn’t being as hyperbolic as you might think here.