He was all dusty and his helmet was over here and his bat was over there and he grabbed them and got right back in there. So I threw it and it was one of those real good ones-it went right underneath him and almost flipped him. He knew better-he was just going through them all. Dave Kingman was up next, and I remember Charlie Moore calling for a fastball away. I’d given up back-to-back home runs before, but not to two lefties. We were in Yankee Stadium one time, and I gave up back-to-back home runs to two left-handers. That’s the kind of thing that happened.”įormer reliever and longtime pitching coach Bob McClure put it this way, in an interview for The Baseball Codes: ![]() Graig hit 11 home runs, and I was on my back 11 times. Mike Hegan, addressing the mindframe if not the actual scenario: “In April of 1974, I hit behind Graig Nettles the whole month.In 2003, Astros pitcher Shane Reynolds gave up three home runs to the Pirates, then put a pitch under the chin of Brian Giles.In 1996, after the Red Sox connected for three home runs against the Angels, reliever Shawn Boskie threw a pitch behind Jose Canseco’s back.In 1991,Angels pitcher Scott Bailes hit Randy Velarde of the Yankees after giving up consecutive home runs.The next hitter, Marty Marion, was knocked down. In 1944 Cardinals Walker Cooper, Whitey Kurowski and Marty Marion hit consecutive homers against Reds pitcher Clyde Shoun.A small sampling, culled from a long-ago post detailing four straight homers hit by the Diamondbacks (which focused more on the outdated unwritten rule of restraint from swinging at the first pitch after back-to-back-or more-home runs): After all, there is plenty of historical precedent on which to build. So when Hammel’s actions followed the script-even if, in retrospect, his intention appears to have been elsewhere-an umpire can hardly be faulted for ignoring the finer points of the situation. Put another way: If a team is getting far too comfortable at the plate, make them less comfortable. When one’s strategy as a pitcher isn’t working out quite as one had hoped-and make no mistake, three straight bombs under any circumstance will make a pitcher question his strategy-the only prudent plan is to change things up. After all, the reasoning goes, even if Hammel didn’t mean to drill Tuiasosopo, perhaps he should have-especially after Victor Martinez, Jhonny Peralta and Alex Avila just went deep. ![]() It being the first pitch after back-to-back-to-back home runs, not to mention its location up near the batter’s head, will put a ballpark in that kind of mindframe. The fact that there is no such thing as an 82-mph purpose pitch-which is where Hammel’s fateful offering clocked in-did not dissuade plate ump Hunter Wendelstedt from ejecting the right-hander on the spot. From there, you can copy/paste to another application.When Orioles starter Jason Hammel drilled Detroit’s Matt Tuiasosopo on Saturday, nobody on either team felt strongly that he did it on purpose.
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