One day after some microphone drama, the Mets and Phillies saw tensions rise for a bit early in their Tuesday night matchup.
Juan Soto, up in the bottom of the first inning, called a timeout before a 2-1 pitch in his plate appearance.
But Phillies starter Jesus Luzardo — who was later ejected — did not seem to be a fan of the late signal from the Mets right fielder, and he still fired the ball to home plate despite umpire Willie Traynor granting the timeout.
Soto seemed in disbelief as he stood out of the batter’s box with his right hand up while the Philadelphia lefty walked off the mound, throwing up his arms animatedly as he met with Traynor between the mound and the plate for a conversation.
Whether that changed the tenor of the turn at the plate, Soto ended up on first base with a walk before having what appeared to be a good-natured conversation with the Phillies dugout as he stood on third base — where he was stranded — later in the inning.
Luzardo, who loaded the bases, worked out of the jam when he fanned Brandon Nimmo. But the lefty had one more heated moment with Traynor in the fifth inning, as he had some words for the home plate umpire as he exited his start, getting ejected in the process.
The testy moment early on Tuesday follows a bizarre incident on Monday when Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm complained about a parabolic microphone in center field after he hit into a double play, leading to a lengthy delay in the fifth inning to remove it.
“There was a microphone in center field that somebody must have turned, and so it was facing the plate, and a glare must have come off it out of the left-hander’s arm slot, the ball was coming right out of that disk,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said after the Mets’ 13-3 win. “They had to get it out of there.”
Philadelphia led the Mets in the standings by six games going into Tuesday’s game.
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