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The Mets Spent the Weekend Exploiting the Pitch Clock and Still Find Themselves Behind the Phillies
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
The Mets spent the weekend beating up on the Yankees in the Subway Series using bush league methods like exploiting the pitch clock multiple times:
I want to hate the Mets for exploiting the pitch clock, but I can’t. Is it bush league? Absolutely. But is it in the rules? Yup. If the Phillies were doing this we’d praise Rob Thomson or whoever figured this strategy out. Would Bryce Harper probably catch another heater to the wrist? You know it. But it would’ve been funny while it lasted.
Listen, every ball club should do this. If you’re able to get up in the count by exploiting the pitch clock then why not? There is no sport like baseball when it comes to gamesmanship. It’s psychological warfare. Max Fried lost his mind. Everyone bends the rules to gain a competitive edge. Sometimes it’s stealing signs and banging on trash cans then sometimes it’s Orlando Arcia staring down Harper after a home run in a regular season game that doesn’t matter. There is no sport that takes their unwritten rules more seriously than baseball. So if MLB wants to stop it, they’ll have to write it into the rulebooks. Until then, maybe the Phillies should start incorporating this into their at bats with RISP. My god, some of those Sunday hacks were putrid. I’m still wondering how they didn’t score after having first and third with zero outs:
This is the exact sequence why Phillies fans can’t buy into this team:
Maybe it’s time for someone in that org to open up the rule book and see what else they can exploit. Before Bryson Stott’s home run in the 8th they were tied 1-1 with a team that had one hit and almost wasted a Zack Wheeler gem.
Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com