Friday’s National League West battle between the Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres featured an intense battle between the starting pitchers, just not in a normal way.
Colorado’s Chad Kuhl and San Diego’s Joe Musgrove were competing with their arms and also their feet, in a game of tic-tac-toe.
Here are all the moves.
Tic Tac Toe twitter, feel free to help these guys. pic.twitter.com/9mF4NoHgkw
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 11, 2022
Baseball fans loved the competition between the two starting pitchers.
This, this is what I love about baseball. There’s room for fun beyond the game. It’s just beautiful. https://t.co/fiX7teXk8R
— Dan Rose | The Pastor Next Door (@danielmrose) June 11, 2022
Greatest sport in the world 😂 https://t.co/cSuJ1cf5yA
— John Bollman (@JohnBollman11) June 11, 2022
Better way to end extra innings games than the current method. https://t.co/5Db5RWDcee
— L’Carpetron Dookmarriot (@shnysprmyz) June 11, 2022
Classic. You'll see tic tac toe boards in the roof-beams of the Notre Dame, too https://t.co/asSXdExpDR
— Infield Fly Girl (@infieldflygrl) June 11, 2022
https://t.co/1PFNQJADm2 pic.twitter.com/hLrEYXhlAD
— Just Devin (@Devin_gain) June 11, 2022
Love it. https://t.co/HXhQHhxtvd
— Rev Blev (@mcblevins12) June 11, 2022
This isn’t unprecedented in baseball. First basemen Steve Lyons and Wally Joyner did this during their playing days. But seeing it from pitchers is unusual. This is especially true since — unless the game ends early — both pitchers could need to go at least four innings while the home pitcher (in this case, Musgrove) would have to at least go out for the fifth inning.
Musgrove and Kuhl were formerly teammates with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Given the amount of downtime baseball players have, not to mention flights and other long trips, we’re guessing that this is not the first game of tic-tac-toe these two have played against each other.
But here’s the real question. Since they are opposing pitchers and also opponents in a fierce game of tic-tac-toe, where do the ultimate bragging rights lie? If a tiebreaker is needed, hopefully they can find time to play a game of rock-paper-scissors.
