[EmpireWF]

During the Mets/Marlins ballgame today, there was a minor incident in the 5th inning. Only ONE PUNCH was thrown and only one player was ejected.

Garcia pitching for the Marlins (with Reyes on 2nd) against Luis Castillo threw pitch one at his feet. 1-0 pitch went behind Castillo and Luis walked towards the mound wanting to know what was up. Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson shot out of the dugout towards catcher Miguel Olivo but was held back by David Wright and other Mets. The bullpens emptied but that was it. No punches or anything. No ejections.

Play resumed and Garcia walked Castillo on two more pitches. Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez came out to take Garcia out. At the mound, Olivo and Reyes were chewing at each other and Reyes made a gesture (unclear) and Olivo ran like a bull for Reyes. He took a swing but hit Sandy Alomar Sr. who was separating the two. Alomar was holding back Olivo as they went near the Marlins dugout. Miguel Cabrera held back Reyes who didn't escalate anything.

Benches emptied, bullpens emptied and the players were by the Marlins dugout. Mike DiFiliece, Marlon Anderson and a few other Mets looked pissed that Sandy Alomar Sr. was struck. About 5-6 minutes later, the umpires got everything settled down and ejected Miguel Olivo.

The SNY Mets announcers (Gary Cohen, Ron Darling & Keith Hernandez) were uncertain about what caused the fracas...obviously it's assumed Reyes said something at Olivo.

Darling and Hernandez (the two former players) hypothesized the scrum could be some form for the team to rally the troops and whatnot. The Mets were leading 9-0 at the time.

Just interesting as the Mets don't usually have bench clearing situations.

[legend]

Reyes had to say something really obscene or denegrating to Olivo to evoke that sort of reaction, which would not be hard to believe given Reyes's level of maturity. The FAN was talking about how earlier in the year, Reyes was being compared to Derek Jeter in New York, and now he may not even be the third best shortstop in his own division- Rollins, Renteria, and Hanley Ramirez all in the mix.

[EmpireWF]

It sounds like there was a misunderstanding between the two players. They were friends (both from D.R., played winterball, etc.) and Reyes thought the whole thing was two friends joking around. Olivo didn't take kindly to Reyes and was serious about it.