Both benches and bullpens cleared in the ninth inning yesterday after Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez hit Washington’s Willie Harris with a pitch, when the latter cursed and slammed his bat and the former came off the mound to confront him.
No punches were thrown — fitting, for the punchless last-place Mets — and Harris’ take was simple: Let’s fight, or let’s forget it.
“If I said something I don’t think it was directed at him,” Harris said after the Nationals’ 5-2 victory over the Mets yesterday. “If I felt like he hit me intentionally, I’d have went after him right then. I’m not going to sit there and chirp and curse back-and-forth. For what? We’re either going to fight, or we’re just going to let it go.
“He dropped the f-bomb. . . . So I said the same thing back. It’s baseball: Your emotions [are high]. . . . He said go to first base, and that’s [irritating]. My dad ain’t here. We play these guys a lot and this is going to get magnified. We either fight, or we let it go and play baseball.”
After Harris got hit in left arm, he said he cursed in pain as he headed to first. Rodriguez felt the profanity — and glare — was directed at him and took umbrage.
“All I was trying to do was pitch inside, and he said a couple of things I didn’t like. I took it in a bad way, and reacted,” Rodriguez said. “It was the way he reacted and stared at me. I didn’t like it. When you’re in that situation, you don’t think. You snap, you react.”
Mets first baseman Mike Jacobs had to separate them and the benches emptied, all over what Harris deems a misunderstanding.
“I didn’t mean anything like [bleep] you [personally]. I got hit and I’m like goddamn, and he may have thought it was directed at him. I don’t know, we need to squash it, though,” Harris said. “If he took it that way, that’s on me. I’ll be a man and say, ‘I didn’t mean no harm.’ But I ain’t no little boy, or no punk. I ain’t scared of him.”
Despite the loss, Jacobs felt this could spark the 2-4 Mets.
“Those things happen. I’m sure both guys look back and probably laugh it off,” Jacobs said. “Good to see some fire out of [Rodriguez]; good to see him get fired-up. Any time things like that happen [it] brings team closer.”
Nationals reliever Brian Bruney, who’d ripped K-Rod as having a “tired act” last season while a relief pitcher with the Yankees, said: “Man, I’m not getting into that [garbage], honestly. Seriously. I’m too old for that [garbage].”