Yesterday afternoon, the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles needed a couple of extra innings to settle things, which left the Yankees’ bullpen slightly short on arms by the end of the day.
So to compensate, manager Joe Girardi stashed a reliever, Bryan Mitchell, at first base after he pitched a clean ninth. “We were short on pitchers, so I knew that I would maybe have to do something unorthodox,” Girardi said.
It’s been a long time since the Yankees have done that:
Bryan Mitchell (P/1B/P today) is the first Yankees pitcher to play a position other than pitcher since Ron Guidry (CF) on 7/24/83 vs. KC.
— Yankees PR Dept. (@YankeesPR) April 30, 2017
And naturally, the very fist ball found him … well, it would have if he caught it:
Your browser does not support iframes.
[adinserter block=”1″]
“I guess I should have expected the first one to find me,” Mitchell said. “That’s something abnormal to me, but I know I can catch a fly ball.”
Pictured Above: Someone who could not catch a fly ball.
Fortunately, Mitchell got another chance at almost the exact same play later in the game, and this time, he made the catch:
Your browser does not support iframes.
In the end, he pitched 2.0 full innings (4H, 3ER, 1BB, 1K) and played one inning at first. His fielding percentage is … not important. He tried his best though! And reports suggest that his mother is, indeed, very proud of her little man!
Who said anything about first base being easy, anyway?
[adinserter block=”9″]