victorino pushes manuel into argument with ump

Shane Victorino was called safe at second base on Thursday night against the Mets. While he was caught in a rundown between first and second base, Victorino seemed to run into Jose Reyes, who was chasing him down. The umpire, Bill Welke, saw the incident in Victorino's favor and called him safe because of obstruction. Jerry Manuel saw the play differently, as did the cameras. Manuel proceeded to argue with Welke, and "according to Welke, Manuel brushed his cap with the bill of his own cap as he screamed at the umpire." Manuel will most likely be suspended for what is believed to be minor incidental contact with the umpire. Victorino has been a nemesis of the Mets since he came to prominence with the Phillies. Now it seems he is trying to single handedly push the Mets out of the division race.

Matt Cerrone of MetsBlog writes:

…i know the Mets won the game, and they’re 3–1 against the Phillies this season… but, how long are the Mets going to let Victorino make fools of them… he taunts them on the field, he consistently clips infielders when sliding in to second, last year he actually stood flat foot and tall on home plate after scoring a run and did the double point in to their dugout, and then last night he shoves Reyes out of the way like George Costanza during a fire… not to mention, Clay Condrey nearly took David Wright’s head off with a fastball behind his batting helmet…

Erik Grissom of Philiesflow.com writes:

The Phillies don’t look ready to give it away. You can see it when a Condrey pitch sends David Wright looking for cover and Shane Victorino throws elbows at Mets’ infielders on the bases. Not sure I would have cared for either of those plays were I not a Phillies fan. A long time ago, I wrote that I was getting a little tired of seeing the Phils look like a bunch of swell guys who went down with a lot of character. I was ready to watch them take somebody’s lunch money. A lot has changed since then.

Josh Alper of NBC News writes:

There's a long history of ill will between Victorino and the Mets, and now he'd elbowed one of Manuel's players out of the way in a rundown. When two teams with bad blood play, the umpires will sometimes issue a warning after a close but otherwise innocuous pitch to head off a beanball war. They take history into account in those situations, and they should take history into account when making their determination on Manuel as well.

Of course the Mets did take both games from the Phillies in an abbreviated series at Citi Field. Now the Mets stand tied with the slumping Marlins only half a game back of the "fighting" Phils. And thanks to Victorino they are now literally the fighting Phils.