NEW YORK -- The Mets and Marlins' benches cleared in the bottom of the seventh inning of Sunday afternoon's series finale at Citi Field after Mets DH Mark Vientos was hit by a pitch from Miami starter Sandy Alcantara.
With the Marlins ahead 5-0 and Alcantara holding the Mets scoreless into the seventh, Alcantara's running 90.4 mph changeup caught Vientos on the leg.
Vientos stared down Alcantara as he headed to first base, and he and Alcantara began jawing at each other. Both benches and bullpens quickly emptied, with the teams coming together in the middle of the infield.
"Just a lot of emotions," Vientos said. "A lot of emotions. Trying to get a rally going, and honestly I'm just gonna keep it between us what was said. But like I said, a lot of emotions, I wanted to do whatever I can for the team to get on base, and things just got heated."
Order was quickly restored and no ejections were made. Both teams were issued warnings by the umpires. Vientos had gone 0-for-2 with a strikeout before the kerfuffle.
"I don't know what he was thinking," Alcantara said. "It was a changeup and he started staring at me and I didn't like that. It just happened. Sunday, you [are fired up], the next day, you are sitting at a bar drinking together. It just happened."
The benches-clearing incident came at the end of a frustrating series for the Mets, who went on to lose Sunday's game 5-1 and dropped three of the four games to the Marlins after sweeping the Phillies.
"I think, obviously, he's not trying to hit him there," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. "It was a changeup. I guess Sandy didn't like the way Vientos reacted. Nobody likes to get hit. And in the heat of the moment, obviously Sandy didn't like the reaction, because he's not trying to hit him, and obviously Mark, he's frustrated because he got hit. That was all there was to it."
Brandon Nimmo -- who was quick-pitched by Alcantara during his previous at-bat in the sixth inning -- was in the thick of the exchange on the Mets' side, as was Pete Alonso.
Marlins leadoff man Xavier Edwards, a childhood friend of Vientos, spoke to the Mets slugger and said the quick-pitching might have contributed to the incident.
"I talked to him a little bit," Edwards said. "He said he was a little upset about Sandy quick-pitching, I think, more so than about the pitch. I’m sure, out of hindsight, he probably looked at the video and saw a changeup, not a fastball. No one would throw a changeup intentionally. He was more upset about that."