Jacob deGrom and Cesar Hernandez learn it can take five balls to draw a walk

Baseball has rules. A lot of them. Score the most runs, you win. Three strikes, you're out. Five balls, take your base … or something like that.

At least that appeared to be the rule during Cesar Hernandez's first at-bat against the Mets on Monday night, because before the barrage of homers began, Jacob deGrom's offerings to Hernandez were called as: Strike, ball, foul, ball, foul, ball, ball and one final ball, culminating in an eight-pitch, five-ball walk. Maybe this is the start of a period of BB-inflation, in which one walk in pre-Aug. 24 terms is equal to 1.25 walks post-Aug. 24 and it costs a batter five balls to take a base now.

Watch the video above for the full breakdown. Either way, that extra pitch taken by Hernandez must've given him an insatiable hunger, because he also drew another walk in his third at-bat of the game, though that was of the traditional four-ball variety.