Todd Frazier Stole An Out Away From The Dodgers By Using A Fake Baseball

The network partners of pro sports usually root, root, root for the home team and do their bidding if need be, but not when you’re the network partner of the New York Mets.

Even good defensive plays for the Mets have an unfortunate end for the folks playing baseball in Flushing this season. They’ve already suffered the worst loss in franchise history, and now Todd Frazier is having his work in the field revealed as clever hoaxes. Because, as it turns out, a diving grab he made that put him into the first row at Chavez Ravine never actually happened.

The play occurred in the bottom of the second inning of Monday’s game in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. Frazier was tracking down a foul pop up and leapt into the stands to snag a ball off the bat of Alex Verdugo. After tumbling over the railing and getting helped back into the playing surface by fans, he comes up with a ball in his glove and the umpire rules that he, indeed, caught it. But on Tuesday, SNY aired a report that included some investigative film work to prove that Frazier did not actually catch the ball Verdugo hit.

SNY’s Steve Gelbs did some research and realized that the ball Frazier had in his glove was already in the stands when he flew over the railing trying to catch the official MLB ball that Verdugo sent into souvenir territory. That ball ended up in the hands of a fan — you can see said fan waiving it at the umpire while he tried to decide what to rule on the play.

So what was the ball that Frazier had in his glove? Probably one bought at a gift shop at Dodger Stadium. The video showed that he tossed it back into the stands afterward, and it even seems to have caught Frazier explaining his ruse in the Mets dugout after the play was ruled an out.

The Dodgers lost, 4-2, on Monday and that play helped stabilize what was looking like anything bad night of pitching for the Mets. After the season they’ve had, the good news is the Mets actually caught a break here.