Nationals manager Davey Martinez understands the Mets reaction to pour out of the dugout and onto the field to defend fallen teammate Francisco Lindor after he became the second Met in 24 hours to be hit in the face by a pitch at the hand of a Washington pitcher.
“I'm gonna be honest, I'd be pissed off,” Martinez said. “They're pissed off, and I get that.”
Still, Martinez reiterated that the pitch from Steve Cishek that hit Lindor in the face was not intentional, just like the pitch that hit Pete Alonso in the face the night before.
“Both times were unintentional. Super unintentional,” Martinez said. “But it did happen. I have no ill feelings with what they did.”
Cishek told reporters after the game that he found Lindor in the medical room taking an X-ray (which came back negative), and offered his apologies while also urging that there was no intent.
“I walked in and shook his hand and apologized and made sure he was OK,” Cishek said. “He said he was. I said I was sorry for what happened, obviously your teammates have your back and I respect that, and again, it wasn’t intentional.”
Intent wasn’t on the Mets minds when they saw another one of their players take a fastball to the face, as they emptied the dugout when Lindor went down. Both benches emptied, but order was soon restored without other major incident, aside from Cishek being ejected.
“I went out there to protect my players,” Martinez said. “Didn’t want to see anything get escalated more than it did, but it happens. Unfortunately, it does happen.”
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