Whatever intentions Mets reliever Frank Francisco had when he hit Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth with a pitch on Thursday, Ron Darling thinks it was pretty dumb.
Francisco drilled Werth with a 3-0 pitch during the eighth inning of the Mets’ 7-2 loss, and Darling, a former All-Star pitcher and now SNY’s color announcer, was not willing to give Francisco the benefit of the doubt. Darling was convinced the plunking was intentional and had some choice words for Francisco, who has a history of abhorrent behavior.
“Why would Francisco be throwing at Werth?” play-by-play man Gary Cohen asked.
“Because he’s a fool, that’s why,” Darling replied.
“That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever seen,” he continued. “Base open, behind in the count, nails him in the back. You know what that does? It gets one of your players hit in the next inning.”
The retaliation didn’t even take that long. One batter later, Werth slid into second base aggressively, taking out Ruben Tejada.
Francisco denied after the game that the hit-by-pitch was intentional, of course. If anything, Werth should consider himself fortunate. At least Francisco went after him with a baseball and not a chair.
Check out Francisco’s pitch and Darling’s reaction in the video below.
