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Last night, John Maine hit leadoff hitter Felipe Lopez with a pitch, most 
likely in response to the Nationals’ ‘cheering’ from the dugout the previous night.
Following last night’s game, a reporter asked Willie Randolph if Maine hit Lopez on purpose to lead off the game.
Maine was walking in to the area where Randolph was answering questions, so the manager jokingly asked Maine, “Johnny, did you hit that guy on purpose.”
Maine replied, “It slipped.”
Maine later told reporters, “It was inside. Too inside, I guess.”
…i personally think that was the perfect time for such payback…maine did what was right to defend his fellow pitcher and teammate, and the nationals didn’t retaliate since they probably expected it to happen…
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Nice job Johnny-boy. Someone needed to do that. Though it should have been saved for Elijah Dukes.
Agreed on both points.
I personally didn’t mind the clapping, but the Mets clearly did and needed to drill someone.
Finally … someone on this team grew a set!! Johnny Maine … I effing love the guy. We need more like him.
If he really did drill him, that rocks that he’s confident enough to put the very first guy on base more than the actual hitting him.
Lopez was a great guy to hit, actually. He was mouthing off in the press about getting in Figueroa’s head.
you mean stick up for an “ex-teammate.”
that’s just good old time baseball. very nice to see. also very nice to see that there was no retalliation and make something out of nothing.
This is how simple the game is when the umpires don’t get involved too early. The players police the game, and the game moves on!
The last person I would throw at is dukes… dude grew up drinking the same water as shef, doc and carl everett. Maine might’ve been killed had he thrown at him. Smart choice with lopez, got it out of the way early and settled right down immediately afterwards.
I was thinking the same thing. Throw at dukes and you’ll be throwin dukes. Maine delivered the message and Lopez looked upset. PERFECT
Glad he has better aim than estes!
Although Estes did hit that home run later, right? Not that it made up for his miss, but it wasn’t all a loss…
Seven years later, who is laughing - Estes or Clemens? Or all of us Mets fans… hahaha
Good job by Maine.
I live in the DC area and was forced to watch the Nats broadcast, and their play-by-play guy hammered Figgy.
He said, “the only thing about last night’s game that resembled a women’s slow pitch softball game was Figueroa’s pitching.”
That announcer had a point though….
maybe Figgy shouldn’t have whined but how can anyone defend the Nats behavior? there is no place for that in baseball. forget about it was against the Mets. this is professional baseball.
I have a lot of respect for Manny Acta and I assume Acta spoke with Dukes about it. as far as I am concerned, it is done and over with. another reason nt to hit Dukes. you send a message to the team and not make it personal to one individual.
It wasn’t just Dukes, it was the whole team. Even Lenny Harris was chiming in. How Acta didn’t stop that about 5 seconds after it started I have no clue. Then again I don’t like some of the antics by Reyes either dancing around and acting like an idiot.
Many of these players need to start acting like professionals instead of whiny spoiled brats.
Good job for defending his (as someone stated above) ex-teammate. I liked how he got it out of the way early and just went on to pitch a good game. Good job johnny.
“It slipped.” hahah classic Maine
his smirk was priceless
I can see why Figueroa and others were upset by it, but I actually found it refreshing to see professional athletes openly having fun and cheering on their teammates. From what I understood they were not heckling the Mets, rather cheering on their own team. I don’t see what the problem is with that really. It is one thing to showboat after hitting a home run or for a pitcher to embarrass a guy by being overly demonstrative after a K, but to cheer your own team on? I really don’t see why that should be discouraged. This isn’t golf or tennis.
Well done Maine. Maybe you’ll score a few extra points with Jennifer Aniston!
He’ll have to change his last name to Mayer and learn guitar to do that.
I want to see John Mayer throw a 93 mph fastball with movement…
In the long run and over the course of this season…this moment in the game will be far more important than Church’s 2rbi double, Sanchez striking striking out Milledge, or Maine striking out Kearnes.
Mets needed to respond appropriately to someone disrespecting the gmae in their house, and they did. Good job Maine. And VERY good job, Willie.
Releasing Figueroa had much to do with his performance, but I bet it also had a little to do with how he reacted in the papers to the WASH bench the previous night, which was like a whiney little girl. Mets need that image far less than they need a bunch of last place rookies chanting in thier visitor’s dugout. They handled both situations correctly…..and killed 2 birds with one stone in response to this incident, IMHO.
And more importantly, they backed it up with a win.
It was just the right thing at a time when we needed it most. Good job Johnny! and yeah, Willie too. Thing about Figgy is similar to Ollie, they both seem talented but insecure. This can’t be the character you want the team to be expressing. Don’t get me wrong, I hope Figgy clears and makes it back to the club as a reliever when we need him. That would be good for everyone.
It’s time overdue that this ball club showed some cohesiveness. Maybe this will prove to be a turning point.