Monday Newsletter time: Brock Holt's outing was fun, but he's no Mitch Moreland in Texas Rangers position-players pitching lore
Holt's first pitch Saturday against Oakland was clocked at 31.1 mph, and the infielder tossed a scoreless inning.
Nothing snaps a baseball writer to attention quite like a position player pitching.
It usually lights up Twitter, and usually results in making a game longer rather than shorter.
It’s not as rare as it used to be, but it’s still something a manager always hopes to avoid.
Chris Woodward, though, didn’t have much of a choice Saturday afternoon with his Texas Rangers trailing the Oakland A’s 12-3. The Rangers were coming off an 11-inning loss Friday night, and Saturday starter Drew Anderson didn’t make it out of the third inning.
Enter infielder Brock Holt, the native Texan who was asked to pitch twice last season for the Washington Nationals. The third time was a charm.
He tossed a 1-2-3 eighth inning, but, more importantly, he threw the slowest pitch since pitch tracking started in 2008. The radar gun somehow registered his first pitch at 31.1 mph.
The eephus pitch, which arced so high that it didn’t fully register on the pitch track, was called a strike.
“The plan was to see how slow I could throw it and still throw strikes,” said Holt, who later pumped a fastball at 82.7 mph. “I was able to execute the plan to perfection today and have some nice defensive plays behind me.”
He got some help defensively, as left fielder Charlie Culberson threw out Matt Chapman at second base and when DJ Peters leapt at the wall to take extra bases from Tony Kemp.
The scoreless inning by Holt might be one of the most memorable by a position player in Rangers history, but the best belongs to a player now in the A’s dugout.
Mitch Moreland worked as Mississippi State’s closer in 2007, and he wasn’t fooling around when he worked the eighth inning of a blowout loss to the Colorado Rockies on May 7, 2014.
Moreland, it turns out, was playing in excruciating foot pain that would soon require season-ending surgery. There was nothing wrong with his left shoulder, though, as his fastball reached 94 mph in a 1-2-3 inning.
He even broke Charlie Blackmon’s bat on a weak comebacker to the mound.
“I didn't want to go up there and get hit," Moreland said. "I wasn't really going to take it easy."
COVID hits Frisco
The good news is that Double A Frisco is off Monday. That could be enough time for more RoughRiders players and staff to test negative for COVID-19 after an undisclosed number tested positive over the weekend.
The first positive test came Friday. Following additional testing and contract tracing Sunday, others either tested positive or were found to have close contact with positive cases.
“The Rangers and RoughRiders have been in consultation with Major League Baseball throughout this process to insure that the health and safety of the players and staff are the primary consideration,” the Rangers said in a statement. “As additional testing is taking place, the Rangers will have no further comment at this time.”
Frisco played with a limited roster Sunday night. Sam Huff another monster homer in an 8-7 walk-off win.
ICYMI …
Good stuff to catch up on in case you missed it …
Friday on the Farm: Draftees hit the field.
Second base unsettled moving forward.
The Sunday Read: Character counts.
All you can read for $5.99 a month.
Doggy video!
A sneak attack! Enjoy. See you Tuesday.
Loved Brock Holt offering to hand his glove to the ump to check for sticky stuff. Dry humor is the best.