It happened in the bottom of the third inning as Mets catcher Tomas Nido hit a single to shallow right field that brought home Eduardo Escobar to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. Escobar scored all the way from first on Nido's single after reaching base on a walk.
As most people were watching Escobar round the bases, SNY analyst Todd Zeile found field-level camera footage of Escobar rounding third base and noticed something interesting: Hayes had taken his glove off to grab sunflower seeds out of his back pocket and eat them before Escobar made it across home plate.
No one probably would have noticed if it wasn't for Zeile bringing it to our attention. Apparently Hayes just had to have those sunflower seeds right at that moment. There may have been an awkward conversation with his manager after this footage got out.Everyone was watching Eduardo Escobar dash home in the 3rd, but did you notice Ke'Bryan Hayes eating sunflower seeds during the play?@Todd_Zeile on Mets Post Game: pic.twitter.com/Ca6v75UPau
— SNY (@SNYtv) September 17, 2022
The Pirates are in last place in the National League Central division, so we can only speculate that the lack of focus may be due to another regular season winding down as they have already been eliminated from the playoffs. Still, you would think that Hayes could have waited until the play was over to grab the seeds. Until MLB implements the pitch clock, there is still plenty of time in between pitches.
We know there are plenty of sunflower seeds consumed in the dugout, but we can honestly say that we have never seen a player eating sunflower seeds on the field before. We have seen plenty of baseball players chewing gum on the field, and plenty of pranks with bubble gum in the dugout.
[LBS]
Moonlighting as a blogger to pursue my interest and enjoyment of sports. Former high school and Division I athlete (now a "retired" family man) that loves watching and discussing all sports. Follow me on Twitter (@HoldoutSports) and like Holdout Sports on Facebook.
