Noah Syndergaard, the New York Mets' hard-throwing ace, told reporters he was "dumbfounded" after getting tossed from Saturday's game without a warning after throwing a 99-mph fastball behind Chase Utley in the third, and manager Terry Collins was just as incredulous as his young star, if not more so.

"Last night at home plate, the umpires had no idea about anything," Collins told ESPN's Adam Rubin after watching Utley propel the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 9-1 victory with two homers at Citi Field. "So to all of a sudden assume that was intentional - whether it was or not - with no damage done, I was a little surprised by it."

Though Syndergaard professed his innocence, chalking up the errant pitch to sweaty conditions in Queens and not any urge to retaliate for Utley's controversial slide that snapped Ruben Tejada's tibia in Game 2 of the NLDS, crew chief Tom Hallion explained after the game that the umpires felt he threw behind Utley on purpose.

"The ruling was that he intentionally threw at the batter, and with that, we have a judgement of whether we thought it was intentional, and if it was, we can either warn or eject," Hallion told a pool reporter. "And with what happened in that situation, we felt the ejection was warranted ... because the pitch was thrown behind Utley."

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Collins, who was ejected himself moments after home-plate umpire Adam Hamar tossed Syndergaard, said he's concerned about his 23-year-old right-hander receiving a suspension from MLB.

"I'm not going to sit here and say Noah threw at him," Collins said. "I'm not going to do that. But there was a time in this game where you had a shot.

"Nothing happened. The ball went to the backstop. So that was kind of my argument."

Nothing happened, Collins added, because he had specifically instructed his pitchers, vengeful or otherwise, not to hurt Dodgers players for the sake of retribution.

"We're not going to say to them, 'Don't do anything,' but you've got to understand that we don't need anybody hurt and we don't need anybody retaliated against," Collins said. "I don't need anybody hurt and I don't need anybody suspended for stuff.