With one out in the top of the 10th inning on Wednesday and the Phillies leading the Mets, 3-2, Edwin Diazdisengaged from the mound for a third time during J.T. Realmuto‘s at-bat — an automatic balk, which he was called for.
But right after stepping off that third time, and being called for the balk (which moved Nick Castellanos to second base), Diaz motioned to the dugout.
Out came manager Carlos Mendoza, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, and the training staff. Soon after, Diaz — who was pointing toward his left hip during a discussion on the mound — left the game with an injury.
Once the umpires realized Diaz disengaged a third time due to an injury issue, the balk call was reversed, with Castellanos sent back to first base. Phillies manager Rob Thomson bounded out of the dugout and was apoplectic while arguing his case. But the reversal stood.
Max Kranick, who entered in relief of Diaz (who was in his second inning of work), started his outing by walking Realmuto and allowing a single to Alec Bohm to load the bases. But he secured the next two outs without any runs scoring, paving the way for the Mets to walk it off in the bottom half of the inning.
After the game, Thomson was still irked about the Diaz/balk situation. And he seemed to suggest Diaz faked an injury in order to get the call reversed.
“That’s a play that I’ll have to remember to tell our pitchers,” Thomson told reporters. “Step off a third time. Call the trainer. He’ll take you out. We’ll put somebody else in.”
Diaz spoke after the game as well, and went into detail about why he had to depart early with what the team designated was a left hip cramp.
“On the fastball I threw to Realmuto, I felt like my hip got locked up,” Diaz said. “So I started walking and tried to loosen it up and when I stepped on the mound, I couldn’t lift my leg a little bit to come set. So that’s why I started doing the step-offs, because I was feeling uncomfortable.”
Diaz added that the trainers told him on Tuesday that his right leg was longer than his left leg, and that they did a hip adjustment to fix the issue.
“As of right now, I feel strong,” Diaz said. “We did some work on my hip and I was feeling better after, so let’s see how I feel on Friday.”
Diaz is in the midst of a strong stretch since having back-to-back rough outings on April 9 and 11.
Over his last five games, spanning 5.1 innings, Diaz has allowed one run on two hits while walking two and striking out 10.
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