'Special' Hoskins drives in 4, continues to irk Mets

NEW YORK — Rhys Hoskins drove in four runs, a day after his hard slide into Jeff McNeil caused dugouts to empty, and Yohan Ramirez was ejected for throwing behind the Milwaukee designated hitter’s back in the Brewers’ 7-6 victory over the New York Mets on Saturday.

Hoskins hit a two-run single in a three-run first inning, followed with a two-run homer in the third, and singled in the fifth and scored on a balk by Luis Severino (0-1), who gave up a career-high 12 hits in his Mets debut.

Ramirez’s first pitch to Hoskins in the seventh sailed well behind the right-handed hitter, who dropped his bat and glared at Ramirez as the reliever raced to pick up the ball, which caromed off the backstop. Ramirez was ejected by plate umpire Lance Barrett and given a standing ovation by fans. Hoskins walked against Jorge Lopez.

“I was trying to tell the umpire that I was trying to throw my sinker and it just happened to go further in, especially with the weather the way that it was,” Ramirez said after the loss through his interpreter. “But they didn’t really care what I was telling them. And they did what they had to do there.”

Hoskins disagreed with Ramirez’s take on the situation.

“Big leaguers don’t miss by 8 feet,” he said. “Whether or not it was on purpose or not, that’s not for me to decide. I really don’t care. But this game has had a way of policing itself for many, many, many years, so let’s focus on doing it the right way if we’re going to do that.”

New York closer Edwin Díaz pitched a perfect ninth in his first big league appearance since Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series on Oct. 9, 2022. Díaz missed last season after tearing the patellar tendon in his right knee while celebrating a win for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic.

New Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy improved to 2-0, while the Mets dropped to 0-2 for the first time since 2014.

Brett Baty hit a three-run homer, and Francisco Alvarez and Pete Alonso had solo shots for the Mets, who trailed 7-2 in the eighth.

Hoskins slid hard into McNeil on a potential double-play ball in the eighth inning of the Brewers’ 3-1 win in Friday’s opener. McNeil yelled at Hoskins, who rubbed his eyes as if to call McNeil a crybaby. Playing with Philadelphia on April 24, 2019, Hoskins homered off Mets reliever Jacob Rhame and took a 34-second home run trot, one night after Rhame threw two pitches over his head.

Hoskins was booed each time he went to the plate Saturday. His four RBIs were his most since Sept. 23, 2022. He missed last year because of a torn ACL in his left knee.

“He is one of our pillars,” Murphy said of Hoskins. “Rhys is a special dude. He’s not just a really good baseball player, he’s really committed to playing the game the right way.”

Alonso’s homer was the first allowed in 34 big league appearances off Abner Uribe, who struck out DJ Stewart and Starling Marte for his second save.

Elvis Peguero (1-0) pitched two hitless innings in relief of starter DL Hall, who gave up two runs and six hits in four innings.

Severino made his Mets debut after eight seasons for the crosstown Yankees and allowed five runs in five innings.

“I was competing out there,” Severino said. “They hit a bunch of base hits. And then Hoskins got me for a homer, a breaking pitch right down the middle. Breaking ball was not there today. I need to keep working on that.”

Mets right-hander Tylor Megill will oppose Brewers righty Colin Rea in Sunday’s series finale.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.