Baseball fans who tuned in for the Mets’ crucial game against the Brewers on Saturday night got a good laugh when a hot mic caught home plate umpire Adrian Johnson’s apparent reaction to a foul ball appearing to clip him in the arm.
The moment occurred in the top of the ninth inning of the Mets’s loss with Francisco Lindor at the plate.
With an 0-2 count, the Mets infielder managed to fight off a pitch from Brewers pitcher Devin Williams that sailed backward and seemed to catch Johnson in the arm.
The foul ball elicited a not-safe-for-work reaction.
“Oh, motherf–ker,” he uttered, which was picked up clearly by the Fox field mics.
Lindor ended up grounding out on the next pitch back to Wiliams the Mets fell 6-0 to Milwaukee in an important game with their playoff hopes hanging in the balance.
Johnson had been caught on a hot mic in August 2022 as he was attempting to announce the decision after a video review in a game between the Padres and Giants.
“After review… oh, s–t,” Johnson said thinking his mic was off before realizing he uttered an expletive to a stadium full of people.
Saturday also wasn’t the first hot mic moment this season for major league umpires.
Earlier this year, crew chief Alan Porter forgot to toggle his mic off after announcing a video review call during a game between the Rangers and Phillies and ended dropping an F-bomb inadvertently on the broadcast.
“See that was one where we all, we thought it was gone,” Porter could be heard saying on the NBC Sports Philadelphia broadcast. “But we’re just like, it’s a crew chief review and we’re gonna go. Cause we’re not gonna flip it and then f–king look stupid if it didn’t leave.”
A somewhat similar situation occurred involving the Mets when a hot mic caught an argument between manager Carlos Mendoza and an umpire after a controversial call in a game against the Cubs in May.
In a more serious situation, Red Sox Jarren Duran was caught on a hot mic using a homophobic slur at a fan.
Duran was suspended two games over the transgression.
