The Pirates’ and Mets’ benches emptied in the top of the eighth inning of Tuesday night’s game after Josh Harrison slid hard into second base. Harrison hit a one-out single to put runners on first and second. David Freese then hit a ground ball to shortstop Jose Reyes, who flipped to Asdrubal Cabrera at the second base bag. Cabrera had to hop over Harrison, which caused his throw to first base to be late.
As Harrison was jogging off the field, reliever Jeurys Familia started barking at Harrison. Harrison took exception and started jawing back. With both teams’ rosters congregating between the pitcher’s mound and second base, Harrison could be seen talking calmly with Cabrera and the two bumped fists, showing the two were cool with one another. (Harrison bumped Cabrera’s glove, more accurately.)
Cabrera is a veteran of 12 major league seasons and a fellow infielder like Harrison, so he knew what Harrison was doing and understood there was no malice behind it. The slide also appeared to be perfectly legal.
No punches were thrown and no one was ejected. The Mets didn’t seek retribution on Harrison when he came to the plate again in the top of the 10th inning. He simply grounded out.
The Mets won in the bottom half of the 10th when Wilmer Flores hit a walk-off RBI single.
