Camila Sosa
MLB balls have been at the center of controversy over the past few seasons: “they incite more home runs,” “they don’t feel equal in the grip,” are some of the comments that could be heard. Today, Chris Bassitt wrote a new chapter in the controversy after blaming the balls — and MLB — for what has happened to his team, the New York Mets, during this 2022 MLB campaign.
Three Mets players were hit with balls during the team’s 3-0 win over the Cardinals on Tuesday night, which has the team to rank as the leader in an unfortunate MLB record after being hit by 18 balls by his opponents. Chris Bassitt expressed his frustration with this situation, and blamed the balls for it.
It’s extremely annoying to see your teammates constantly get hit, and if you get hit by certain pitches it is what it is, but to get hit in the head the amount that we’re getting hit is unbelievable. I had some close calls tonight, and I’ve been hit in the face [by a line drive] and I don’t want to do that to anybody ever, but MLB has a very big problem with the baseballs. They’re bad. Everyone in the league knows it. Every pitcher knows this. They’re bad. They don’t care. MLB doesn’t give a damn about it. They don’t care. We’ve told them our problems with them, and they don’t care.
Chris Bassitt
Chris Bassitt apparently exploded when he saw Dominic Smith, Pete Alonso and Starling Marte get hit by Cardinals pitchers. Of all of them, It was Pete Alonso who got the worst of it, with a ball directly to his head, the second time this has happened to him this season. Fortunately the player passed concussion tests successfully, but Mets manager Buck Showalter mentioned that he may leave Alonso out of the lineup for his next game to take care of his health.
It is worth remembering that MLB made new balls available for this season so as to try to increase the chances of plays across the field and reduce the number of homeruns, strikeouts and base on balls.
Chris Bassitt’s Remarks Challenged by a Colleague
St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas was quick to question what Chris Bassitt said. That Tuesday night game not only saw three Mets players get hit by pitching, but also saw two Cardinals hitters meet the same fate .
It’s not the ball’s fault. Take some responsibility for your actions.
Miles Mikolas to Jeff Jones of BND.com
The veteran starter also mentioned that he has not experienced any of the problems Chris Bassitt mentioned regarding the balls, and added that the Mets pitcher may have had problems with his control due to the low temperature of that night.
