Let’s try to follow through on this calamity of events at a minor league baseball game Saturday night.
As the Hartford Yard Goats took on the Binghamton Rumble Ponies in what may be the greatest matchup of team names in baseball history, Rumble Ponies pitcher Cory Burns slipped on the mound and let go of the ball to slowly roll in the general vicinity of home plate.
Okay, it’s a 1-2 pitch. Burns probably figured it was no big deal. Just take the ball and get back to it at 2-2 and try to strike out the batter. But Yard Goats batter Josh Fuentes decided to not even give Burns the opportunity.
Please enjoy this extremely strange @MiLB strikeout: https://t.co/qCRHp8fK3H pic.twitter.com/coESfmeE6m
— Cut4 (@Cut4) May 27, 2017
Fuentes took a joke swing at the rolling pitch not expecting anything to happen. Unbeknownst to Fuentes, because it was a live pitch, the umpire had no choice but to call a strike and Fuentes was out which ended the 8th inning for the Yard Goats.
Fuentes seemed pretty upset at what happened but hopefully he was upset at himself than at the umpire. And in case you were wondering, Harvard lost 5-4. If you’re going to have fun and joke around, pay attention to what you’re doing. You never know when you may be doing something that could cause you to lose, even though you meant it to be a joke.
[Deadspin]
Hartford, not Harvard.