QUEENS, N.Y. — New York Mets reliever Yohan Ramirez received an automatic ejection from Saturday’s 7-6 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers for throwing behind Rhys Hoskins, who was amid an impressive day at the plate.
“You hate to see it,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “When it first happened, I couldn’t tell what the pitch was. He definitely wasn’t trying to hit him. I understand their frustration with everything that was going on and what happened yesterday.”
Hoskins started Saturday going 3-for-3 with a home run and four RBI off starter Luis Severino one day after a questionable slide saw him spike New York second baseman Jeff McNeil in the right leg.
“[Hoskins] was having a great game and Ramirez is a guy who historically has control issues,” Mendoza said. “He’s just trying to pitch up and in. We’re trying to get a groundball with a sinker, and that happened.”
Rather than take earlier action, New York waited until Ramirez took the hill with the Mets trailing 6-2 and Hoskins having already done his damage. With his first pitch to Hoskins, Ramirez sent a sinker well behind him, prompting the Brewers slugger to drop his bat and put his hands on his hips.
“I was just trying to throw my sinker inside and sometimes when I try to get it too in, the ball just runs, honestly,” Ramirez said through an interpreter. “In this type of weather, I don’t have the grip that I’m accustomed to having so at that point, the ball just ran but I wasn’t trying to hit him.”
Yohan Ramírez throws one behind Rhys Hoskins and gets ejected: pic.twitter.com/xsabTegXNZ
— SNY (@SNYtv) March 30, 2024
His Milwaukee teammates mulled about the top step of their dugout while manager Pat Murphy argued with the umpiring crew, headed by Alfonso Marquez, to eject Ramirez. He got his wish after a short meeting between the umps.
“Of course [I was surprised that I was ejected],” Ramirez said. “I was trying to tell the umpire that I was trying to throw my sinker and it happened to go further in… They didn’t really care what I was telling them.”
Ramirez was making his Mets debut on Saturday after spending the 2023 season with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago White Sox. He now faces a potential suspension if the throw was deemed intentional by Major League Baseball.
“I’m not really in control of this situation,” Ramirez said. “All I can really do is tell them my point of view.”
