The Cleveland Indians starting Ryan Merritt in Game Five of the American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays Wednesday turned plenty of heads. Blue Jays’ outfielder Jose Bautista saw it as a chance to poke fun at the inexperienced Merritt, but Merritt and the Indians made him eat his words.
Here is what the confident Bautista said prior to facing Merritt:
“With our experience in our lineup,” Bautista said, “I’m pretty sure he’s going to be shaking in his boots more than we are.”
But as Bautista and the rest of the Toronto lineup soon found out, Merritt wasn’t as nervous as the Jays wanted him to be. The 24-year-old rookie came out and allowed just two hits and no runs in 4-and-2/3 innings of work. This was crucial in the Tribe’s series-clinching 3-0 win.
After both the Indians and their fans saw Bautista’s comments, the trolling was on after Cleveland punched their ticket to the World Series. Let’s start with the players, especially Trevor Bauer (he of the drone injury) and his creative use of a boot:
Happy birthday! Headed to the World Series!! #LetsGoTribe !!!! pic.twitter.com/wIf35qt2zK
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) October 20, 2016
Other Cleveland players also joined in to mock Bautista:
#ShakingBoots are going to the #WorldSeries!!!!! #RallyTogether pic.twitter.com/dOEQW7nc0c
— Jose Ramirez (@MrLapara) October 19, 2016
Jason Kipnis on Bautista's shaking-in-his-boots comments regarding Ryan Merritt: "That’s why you don’t say dumb s**t." #ALCS
— Erik Boland (@eboland11) October 20, 2016
And players say they don’t read the newspaper. Well, apparently they did in this case. And so did the fans.
https://twitter.com/HFSCleveland/status/788928427860619269
#JoeyBats you're right. Merritt is still shaking in his boots……from all the champagne in them in the visitor's locker room!
— @jnmentor (@jnmentor) October 19, 2016
While it’s good to credit Bautista for being open and honest, there are definitely consequences that come along with that. Especially when the guy you said would be nervous pitches his team into the World Series.
