Carlos Mendoza is usually pretty calm and collected — but frustration has been brewing for the second-year Mets skipper throughout Sunday's Subway Series finale at Citi Field.
Finally, in the ninth inning, things reached the breaking point.
With Luis Torrens pinch-hitting against Yankees closer Devin Williams leading off the bottom of the ninth, home plate umpire John Bacon made an extremely questionable strike two call on a pitch out of the zone.
Mendoza gave Bacon an earful from the first-base dugout, but play went on.
Seconds later, Bacon punched out Torrens on a changeup even further out of the zone, and this time the skipper immediately came sprinting out of the dugout.
Mendoza quickly earned his second ejection in the last eight days, and this time he got his money's worth — kicking some dirt on home plate and getting in Bacon's face before being separated.
It was just his third career ejection, and second in the last week.
Carlos Mendoza has been ejected for arguing balls and strikes with home plate umpire John Bacon pic.twitter.com/aJrDvmn4Ay
— SNY (@SNYtv) July 6, 2025
"It was building up the whole game," Mendoza explained postgame. "In that situation, leading off the inning down two runs, you want to get guys on base and keep the line moving so hopefully [Juan] Soto and Pete [Alonso] get a chance here.
"You get two calls like that that don't go your way, it's just pretty frustrating."
And as things played out, the Mets ended up going down quietly against Williams, who got Starling Marte to ground out and then punched out Francisco Lindor on a 98 mph fastball to end the game.
Still, the club was able to secure the series victory and Subway Series split for the season.
Read the full article here