Mets rally after Frazier, Callaway ejections

NEW YORK -- Mickey Callaway was walking through the clubhouse tunnel, not yet in front of a television when Tomás Nido came through with the type of hit that has eluded the Mets for so much of this season. Callaway was the second and final person that home-plate umpire Tripp Gibson ejected during a wild, game-changing fifth inning that included two hit batsmen, two ejections and three Mets runs -- all of which came off the bat of Nido.

The bottom of the inning became heated enough that afterward, Phillies starter Jake Arrieta snapped: “If [Todd] Frazier is not happy about it, he can come see me. I’ll put a dent in his skull.”

• Box score

Such was the sideshow at Citi Field on Saturday, when Nido’s hit lifted the Mets to a 6-5 win over the Phillies, while also elevating them above the fray. The Mets needed this one badly, and not just for reasons visible in the National League standings. They needed Nido to come through with a three-run double. They needed Edwin Díaz to correct himself, as he did with a scoreless ninth. They needed Jeff McNeil's four-hit game to lift them. They needed Jay Bruce to stop haunting them, at least for a night.

All of that happened to varying degrees in their victory, though the lingering image was of what happened in the fifth.

With the bases empty and one out, Arrieta plunked Frazier on the left elbow with an 0-1 changeup. Frazier, who had also been hit the previous night, slammed his bat to the dirt and began barking at Arrieta. Both benches stirred, but did not empty, as catcher J.T. Realmuto and Gibson walked Frazier down to first base.

The episode seemed to fizzle until Gibson decided to warn both benches, sparking additional anger from Frazier at first base. Gibson promptly ejected him.

“Basically, the way it all went down, the way the emotions were running, I decided I needed to issue warnings, because it was unintentional, in my judgment,” Gibson said of Arrieta’s pitch.

Gibson noted that he and his crew were well aware of the history between these two clubs. In an April game at Citi Field, reliever Jacob Rhame twice threw balls near the head of Phillies' slugger Rhys Hoskins, earning Rhame a two-game suspension that he still has not served, since the Mets optioned Rhame to Triple-A Syracuse before he could.

Even so, Gibson said he believed both Arrieta’s pitch to Frazier, and a subsequent Arrieta changeup that struck Amed Rosario, were unintentional. After the latter, Callaway came sprinting out of the dugout to argue that Arrieta, given the warnings in place, should be ejected. Gibson tossed Callaway instead.

“We just got one of our players thrown out, and then the guy comes and hits a batter two batters later,” Callaway said. “I felt like I needed to protect our players at that point.”

Frazier bolted Citi Field late Saturday without commenting or responding to Arrieta’s remarks, though perhaps the non-ejection worked in the Mets’ favor. Arrieta faced only one additional batter, serving up Nido’s three-run double to turn a one-run Mets' deficit into a two-run lead, before departing.

“In that situation right there, it was a perfect example of trying to use the whole field,” Nido said. “They wanted me to ground out there, turn a double play. I just made sure to stay back, and get the ball in the air in the gap.”

Nido’s hit took Noah Syndergaard, who allowed four runs in five innings, off the hook for a loss. He’ll take it. The Mets will take it. Plenty of other good things happened for them in this one, from McNeil’s four-hit day to Diaz’s shutdown ninth, in which he threw exclusively fastballs.

Consider it the win the Mets needed, as they look to end the first half on a better note. Consider it, quite possibly, even a spark.