Even as the Mets forged a late comeback Friday night against the Diamondbacks, the key intrigue concerned what happened out of public view.
In the middle of the seventh inning, as seen on SNY’s game telecast, Michael Conforto and Dominic Smith ran into the tunnel that connects the Mets’ dugout to its clubhouse, clearly concerned about something occurring there. Conforto emerged shortly after, looking calmer, even as other Mets, including Pete Alonso, headed down the stairs.
SNY subsequently showed Mets second baseman Jeff McNeil taking the field for the top of the eighth inning, frowning and getting a pat on the back from Alonso. SNY also noted that McNeil’s double-play partner Francisco Lindor, despite hitting a game-tying homer in the bottom of the seventh inning, wasn’t smiling, a betrayal of his “Mr. Smile” nickname.
Lindor’s explanation for the commotion was he and McNeil were debating whether an animal in the tunnel was a rat or raccoon.
“I told him, I’ve never seen a New York rat and we went down sprinting about to go see a New York rat and he got mad at me like, ‘No it’s not a rat, it’s a raccoon.’ ” Lindor said in his postgame interview. “Like hell no man that’s a dam rat. That’s a New York rat. I was just crazy because we were going back and forth debating whether it was a rat or a raccoon. Crazy man, insane.”
