Last week, the Mets were hyped about a fictitious hitting approach coach named Donnie Stevenson. This week, the drama arrived because of … an alleged “New York rat.”
Following a spectacle in the Mets tunnel between innings during their 5-4 win against the Diamondbacks on Friday, almost every player and coach in the Mets dugout ran inside or peered down the steps to see what was going on.
Francisco Lindor said he was having a debate with Jeff McNeil about a rat, or a raccoon, in the tunnel. That’s certainly a new way to describe what looked like a heated and serious situation that involved the entire team, but here’s what Lindor wants fans, and the public at large, to believe.
“It was funny, because I was like ‘I never saw a New York rat,'” Lindor said, trying his best to sell the story. “So we went down sprinting, about to go see a New York rat. And (McNeil) got mad at me. He’s like, ‘It’s not a rat, it’s a raccoon.’ I was like, ‘Hell no, man. It’s a damn rat. It’s a New York rat.’
“It was crazy because we were going back and forth debating whether it was a New York rat or a raccoon. Crazy man.”
McNeil later added he thought it was a possum in the tunnel.
The alleged rat/racoon situation took place after Michael Conforto caught a fly ball on the warning track in right field for the final out of the top of the seventh inning. When Conforto jogged back into the dugout, he and several other Mets players, including Pete Alonso, Kevin Pillar and a handful of coaches, ran to the tunnel steps to see what was going on. Jonathan Villar even waved his hand to encourage more people to check out the situation.
Prior to the seventh, Lindor and McNeil had poor communication on a few plays in the infield. On one play, McNeil looked like he was in the way as Lindor tried to corral a ground ball. When Lindor was asked whether the miscues in the field had to do with the scene in the tunnel, he denied it and said the relationship between the double-play partners was just fine. McNeil said they were upset about the miscommunication on the field, but there were “no hard feelings.”
“I can even bring him out and give him a kiss on the cheek if you guys want,” Lindor said, seemingly forcing laughter. “It was just a rat, man. We’re good.”
Whether the situation involved a fight between Lindor and McNeil, Luis Rojas wouldn’t give it up.
“At that point in the game, I knew something was going on, I heard some scrambling in the tunnel,” the Mets manager said. “I went down to check and the one that I ran into, Francisco was like, ‘Let’s go play ball, Luis! Let’s go play ball!’ And we just came back up.
“This is a really good group. We call ourselves a family,” Rojas said. “Everything that happens on a daily basis in a family happens here. Everyone has understanding of how they are and how they work.”
Moments after that tunnel incident, Lindor tied the game with a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning. As he rounded the bases and entered the dugout, there was no usual smile on the shortstop’s face. Lindor looked angry. He said he was emotional because he finally helped the team put runs on the board.
McNeil was asked whether he’s OK with fans being skeptical about the rat story.
“They can believe whatever they want,” McNeil said. “We’re a tight-knit group. Everybody loves everybody. It’s just a great group of guys, great clubhouse. We have a lot of fun and there’s a lot of positivity between this group.”
Just like Donnie Stevenson, we ain’t buying it.