Chris Russo thought it was bush league for Buck Showalter to have Joe Musgrove searched for a banned substance.
On Sunday night, as the Mets were down 4-0 in the decisive Game 3 of the wild-card series to the San Diego Padres, Showalter instructed umpire Alfonso Marquez to check Musgrove for anything that might be impacting his spin rate. The umpires found nothing illegal and Musgrove stayed in the game.
Speaking on MLB Network’s “High Heat” on Monday, Russo excoriated the Mets skipper for the decision.
“I love Buck and I hate to say this, but what the 24-year-old kid with the data processing board who tells someone in the front office to tell Buck that Joe Musgrove’s spin rate is higher than it normally is so he can go moan and groan … That was a horrific look for Showalter and the organization,” Russo said.
“To go out there and tell Alfonso Marquez to dress down Musgrove in the sixth inning, when you’ve got one hit, and you’ve done NOTHING in a week and a half, I don’t care about what Buck said about doing what’s good for the organization. That’s bogus. If you’re gonna do it, you better find something. It’s as simple as that. If you’re gonna dress down the pitcher on national television, when you’re losing 4-0, you better get it right, and he didn’t. So he looks like a horse’s rear end.”
Russo thought this move made the Mets look “small” — and said no one will care about the fact that they won more than 100 games in the regular season.
Joe Musgrove AP“I love Buck. But that was a very, very poor decision. And it made the Mets look small,” Russo said “And the Padres are all ticked off. And Musgrove is fired up. And the Padres mocked the fan base of the Mets for the last three innings of the game.
“The bigger issue for the Mets is you can say 101 wins all you want. When you win 101, and then you get ambushed in the last week of the season, blow the division, and then of course get ambushed in the wild-card round in your building, no one cares about the 101 wins.”
Russo was far from the only one to be critical of Showalter’s decision. Mets voice Gary Cohen took issue with the manager’s choice with Musgrove on the SNY postgame show on Sunday.
