Rat, raccoon or cover-up? What actually happened in the Mets' tunnel?

The New York Mets were the talk of the baseball world on Friday night, and it had nothing to do with their 5-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in extra innings and everything to do with a common New York debate between rat and raccoon — and possibly a possum.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, something happened in the Mets’ tunnel between infielders Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil, which was enough to draw the attention from several Mets running toward it and out of sight of the cameras. Then, as if nothing had happened at all, everyone came back out on the field and the game resumed.

But, for the sake of context, it’s worth noting that a notable seventh-inning miscommunication between Lindor and McNeil — which allowed Arizona’s Nick Ahmed to reach on an infield single — happened just moments before the tunnel incident.

After video surfaced, people speculated that Lindor and McNeil had gotten into some kind of altercation, which was impossible to know for sure given there was no video of what actually went down in the tunnel.

Lindor and McNeil going at it in the tunnel? pic.twitter.com/VnAcOWIXBY

— Master flip (@Masterflip_) May 8, 2021

Naturally, there were questions after the game — and it wasn’t about the Mets’ 5-4 win over the Diamondbacks in extra innings. Lindor fielded questions about the tunnel incident, for which he had an interesting explanation involving a rat, a raccoon or a potential cover-up.

“It was funny,” Lindor said. “I told [McNeil] that I’d never seen a New York rat. So went down sprinting. I wanted to go see a New York rat. And he’s like, ‘No, it’s not a rat. It’s a raccoon.’ I was like, ‘Hell no! It’s a damn rat. It’s a New York rat.'”

"We were going back and forth debating if it was a rat or a racoon"

SOUND UP to hear about what happened in the tunnel between Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil from Francisco himself pic.twitter.com/REn66S6nf3

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 8, 2021

It seemed like a ridiculous explanation, and Mets beat writers had their doubts. But Lindor stuck to his story — no matter the skepticism — and even McNeil backed up Lindor’s story about the rat-raccoon debate.

“Like [Lindor] said,” McNeil said, “a nice debate about a rat or a raccoon. To be honest, I thought it was actually a possum. So not a raccoon, but a possum.”

But people aren’t buying it, believing that it was something else that caused half the dugout to rush down into the tunnel.

https://t.co/lhjJmMo6If pic.twitter.com/q2ROEifIwG

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 8, 2021

Only in New York could “is it a rat or a raccoon?” be a debate and no one think much of it because even I’ve seen raccoon-sized rats there and I was just passing through… https://t.co/jmo9MR2ZuE

— Jim Owczarski (@JimOwczarski) May 8, 2021

I mean…come on. https://t.co/9EtXy6iggp

— Johnathon O'Halloran (@JohnnyOHally) May 8, 2021

Highly Doubt That https://t.co/TyPYZiPJhc

— вам вам (@GORILLAMAMBA) May 8, 2021

Whatever happened in that tunnel, we’ll never know. That’s between Lindor, McNeil, the Mets and the rat/raccoon/possum.