Rhys Hoskins calls Jeff McNeil crybaby after dirty slide clears benches in Mets-Brewers

The birds are chipping. Spring is in the air. Baseball is back and so are benches-clearing brawls and dugout antics.

To be fair, the benches clearing in Friday's game between the New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers was hardly a brawl. But it would be easy to understand the reason why, if it had come to that.

Rhys Hoskins slid in late at second base, taking out Jeff McNeil as he tried to turn a double play. The Mets second baseman was furious and let Hoskins hear it. Players from both sides jumped up to defend their teammates.

Somehow, someway the umpires looked at that play and ruled it a legal slide....okay then.

Regardless of what the officials said there, that's a dirty play. Hoskins was horrendously late, only starting his slide after the ball reached McNeil's glove. He could have seriously injured his opponent. Who wouldn't be incensed if they had someone come that close to ending their season on Opening Day with a slide like that?

Rhys Hoskins called Jeff McNeil a crybaby after benches cleared

Hoskins obviously didn't feel bad about his actions. As McNeil continued to jaw at him in the dugout, the Brewers first baseman hit him with a crybaby gesture. For the memes.

That was the end of the Hoskins-McNeil feud, at least for Friday.

The flashpoint came in the top of the eighth, ultimately resulting in the out at second but othing more. It didn't matter as the Mets ended the inning without incident.

The Brewers ultimately got the last laugh with a victory. The Mets led 1-0 on a Starling Marte home run in the second inning but Christian Yelich responded with his own dinger in the fourth and Milwaukee went on to score a go-ahead run in the fifth and an insurance run in the seventh.

The Mets didn't have any answers with Marte's homer representing their ownly hit in the nine innings. Only two other batters even made it on base.