WATCH: Mets' Cespedes Allows Inside-The-Park Homer While He Argues With Ump
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBSNewYork) -- OK, just don't try that during the regular season, Yoenis.
The Mets' Yoenis Cespedes on Thursday unsuccessfully argued that a fly ball to center field was not playable while the Houston Astros' A.J. Reed circled the bases for an easy inside-the-park homer.
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The play occurred in the top of the second inning of the teams' spring training game in Port St. Lucie. Reed hit a deep fly ball off Matt Harvey to straight-away center field. The ball landed in a gap between the dirt and the padding on the wall.
Cespedes raised his arms to indicate he believed it should be a ground-rule double. Reed intially stopped at second base before his teammates urged him continue running as Cespedes, leaving the ball on the ground, argued his case with umpire C.B. Buckner, who ran out to the wall to take a closer look.
Buckner swatted the ball out from under the wall to demonstrate his point that the ball was easily playable.
The officiating crew wasn't the only ones who didn't see it Cespedes' way.
"What are you thinking, Lincoln?" SNY's Keith Hernandez said during the broadcast.
Through an interpreter, Cespedes gave his side of the story to ESPN: "The ball fell under the fence. It got wedged in there. For me, I couldn't grab that. I thought that should have followed the ground rule and should have just been the double. [The umpire] said, 'You should be able to grab that.' I said, 'Of course I could grab that -- if I stick my hand in there and pull it out, yes I guess I could grab it.' He stuck his hand in there and pulled it out. I could have done that as well. I just didn't think that was what I needed to do."
The Mets, playing with a split squad, lost the game, 8-5. In its other game Thursday, New York lost to the Boston Red Sox, 4-1.
