Cabrera, Ramos settle past bat flip spat
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CINCINNATI -- The bat flip is so legendary that the Mets turned it into a bobblehead.
Asdrúbal Cabrera crushed a three-run, 11th-inning walk-off home run against Phillies right-hander Edubray Ramos on Sept. 22, 2016, at Citi Field. Cabrera celebrated with a prodigious bat flip, using both hands to launch his bat high into the air. The lumber might or might not have landed before he touched home plate.
Ramos remembered. He fired a 96-mph fastball over Cabrera's head on April 10, 2017, at Citizens Bank Park.
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On Saturday, they smoothed things over at Great American Ball Park.
"We shook hands, we hugged it out, we talked about it," Ramos said through the Phillies' interpreter Sunday morning. "At the end of the day, we're both professionals and we're here to help the same team win. That's pretty much the bottom line."
"I always say, whatever happens in this game stays on the field, you know?" Cabrera said. "We said hi and we talked during the game. He's my teammate now."
The Phillies traded pitching prospect Franklyn Kilome to the Mets on Friday for Cabrera, who the Phillies hope will boost the offense as they try to win their first National League East title since 2011. Ramos acknowledged he felt a bit uncomfortable when he first learned about the trade, but that feeling quickly faded once they talked.
Ramos' teammates had some fun with it, too. They egged on Ramos to hash things out with Cabrera.
So now that Cabrera is a teammate, perhaps Ramos will have a much different reaction if he follows a walk-off homer with a bobblehead-worthy bat flip?
"I don't know what my reaction is going to be, but for sure it's going to be much better to have him on this side," Ramos said.
Does Cabrera have any more of those bobbleheads?
"A lot," he said. "I was thinking of sending one to him as a joke."