Blue Jays 7 – Mets 3
TORONTO – And you thought the Blue Jays used to play at Exhibition Stadium? Yesterday, there were five topless strippers at SkyDome’s Renaissance Hotel who were in full view of the 30,139 in attendance here. It was apparently a publicity stunt for a local strip joint.
Later in another window there was a naked couple in clear view who looked as if they were about to get busy. Someone knocked on their door and the blinds were quickly closed.
Meanwhile on the field, Al Leiter and the Mets lost 7-3 to the Blue Jays. Leiter (10-3) began the game by facing the minimum amount of batters in the first four innings.
He had a 1-0 lead thanks to backup catcher Todd Pratt’s solo homer in the third, but Leiter saw a different type of exhibitionism during his outing. Afterward, he dressed down home plate ump Mike Fichter.
“What happened was I got a little frustrated with the most inconsistent umpiring I had in 12 years in the major leagues,” Leiter said of Fichter, a young fill-in ump. “It wasn’t just me. I’m not just bitching as the only one.”
Leiter said it was “a little bit of both” – the Blue Jays and Fichter – which contributed to his loss. Meanwhile, Roy Halladay, who came in with an 11.68 ERA, didn’t carp about the umpiring. Halladay (4-5) went six innings and said Fichter was a bit inconsistent, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Halladay’s win allowed the Blue Jays to remain a half-game behind the Yankees. The Mets dropped to six behind Atlanta. Bobby Valentine’s team has lost three of the first four games of this 11-game trip and six of eight since the beginning of the Yankee series.
“I think most of the guys realize it is not going our way right now in bunches,” Valentine said. “It will come our way in bunches. That is the way this game is.”
Leiter gave up a 1-0 lead in the fifth as Toronto used three walks and a single to left by Alberto Castillo, an ex-Met, and a fielder’s choice by Homer Bush, the former Yankee, to take a 2-1 advantage.
After the Mets took back the lead on a Todd Zeile RBI triple and a Benny Agbayani fielder’s choice in the top of the sixth, the sequence which most galled Leiter came in the bottom of the inning.
With the bases loaded, Marty Cordova came to the plate with one out. Leiter fell behind 3-1, which neither Leiter nor Valentine thought was just.
“I thought he threw some really good pitches to Cordova to be [down] 3-1,” Valentine said.
Leiter said his 2-1 fastball was right on the outer half of the plate. It should have been strike two, not ball three.
“I thought it was a ball, it’s been called a strike many times, especially with Al Leiter on the mound,” Cordova said.
With the count 3-1, Leiter felt he had one choice. Only up a run and the bases loaded, he didn’t want to walk in the tying run. So he felt he needed to make sure his 3-1 slider was a strike.
He did and Cordova hit his first career grand slam. Leiter fought to contain his anger toward Fichter.
“I was close to wanting to do something, but what are you going to do?” said Leiter, who added he didn’t want to argue and look stupid.
After the game, Leiter said he was making his comments for the good of the “kid,” as he referred to Fitcher. He hopes the kid looks at the tape of the game so he can be better next time.
“With a young umpire, it is my hope that he will see the game and see how many pitches he actually missed,” Leiter said. “It was unbelievable for everybody.”
In the seventh, with the bases loaded and the Mets down 6-3, Zeile came up and the normally stoic first baseman just dropped his bat after Fitcher called strike three, which ended the Mets rally.
“I said, ‘I can’t believe you called that pitch a strike,’ ” Zeile said. “[Fichter] said, ‘It was a good pitch.’ I said, ‘If it’s a good pitch, it’s not necessarily a strike.’ He said, ‘It was a good pitch’ and he walked away.”
Leiter was unaware of the festivities at the SkyDome hotel, but he quipped about it after being informed.
“Maybe that was what the umpire was looking at,” Leiter said.
