Francisco Lindor's defense is deemed unprofessional by the Phillies' broadcast booth

New York Mets v Washington Nationals
New York Mets v Washington Nationals / G Fiume/GettyImages

There's clearly no love lost between the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies. That rivalry continued to extend off the field and into the broadcast booth with the latest war of words coming from the Phillies' broadcast booth during the middle of Wednesday night's game.

We all remember last year how Keith Hernandez's comments regarding the Phillies' defense and his disinterest in calling Phillies games had started an uprising from the Phillies fanbase as well as their broadcasters. Well, the roles were reversed Wednesday night, as Phillies announcers Tom McCarthy and Ben Davis took a direct shot at Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor and his defense deeming his play unprofessional.

On Wednesday night the Mets superstar shortstop was on the receiving end of trash talk from a division rival's broadcast booth

The comments occurred in the top of the fifth inning as Phillies Manager Rob Thomson had put on a hit and run with Kody Clemens on first base and Edmundo Sosa hitting at the plate. Sosa would line out sharply to Francisco Lindor leaving Clemens in no man's land between first and second base. After making the catch Lindor would then toss the ball lightly to first baseman Pete Alonso to double up Clemens at first base.

That's where the war of words began as McCarthy and Davis would debate following the play on the nature of how Lindor had thrown the ball back to first base. McCarthy would ask Davis if he had a problem with the way the ball was tossed back to first base, with Davis replying that he wasn't a big fan of the play, and he claimed Lindor should be a little bit more professional about it as they believed he was "throwing salt in the wound" by showing up Clemens.

At this point, I'm not exactly sure what else Lindor was supposed to do other than throw the ball back to first base when Clemens had basically given himself up. I also didn't realize that there was a certain way the ball needed to be tossed back to first base without showing up an opponent.

The comments from the Phillies booth came off as petty as the Phillies have struggled to put together any kind of offense over the past two games against the Mets and Lindor seemed to be an easy target for McCarthy and Davis to take their frustrations out on.

Mets fans on Twitter immediately came to Lindor's defense after comments from the broadcast leaked on social media and rightfully so. At this point, we can go ahead and chalk this one up as another footnote in the bitter rivalry between both clubs.

With only one run scored over the last 18 innings in the two games played against the Mets maybe the focus for McCarthy and Davis should be on the Phillies' lack of offense rather than how Francisco Lindor throws a ball to first base to complete a double play.

manual