Deciphering the Dukes incident

For those of you who didn’t see the fourth inning, here’s what happened with Elijah Dukes and Mike Pelfrey. Dukes hit a 410-foot homer off the right-hander in the second inning to tie the game, and Pelfrey’s first pitch to him in the fourth was far enough inside that it almost brushed Dukes’ jersey near his chest. He had to be restrained by Manny Acta and Dmitri Young as he shouted at Pelfrey and exchanged words (and possibly spittle) at close range with Brian Schneider. Home plate umpire Doug Eddings warned the Mets’ bench, and Dukes hit a 1-2 pitch down the line for a double. As he scored later in the inning, Dukes gestured to the booing fans behind the Nationals’ dugout. From here, let’s just say it didn’t look G-rated. He just batted against Pelfrey in the fifth inning, and got hit by a 3-2 fastball. Dukes reached third and trotted toward home as Wil Nieves grounded out to end the inning. But as he received more boos from the Mets fans, Dukes wagged his tongue at them. Should be interesting to see how this finishes up. Nats trail 7-5 in the bottom of the fifth. More later…