File this one under the category of “stuff you don’t see everyday in baseball.” Indians starting pitcher Trevor Bauer heaved a ball from the pitcher’s mound over the center-field wall more than 300 feet away just before he was pulled from a game against the Kansas City Royals.
A series of unfortunate breaks and mistakes, both his own and his teammates’, contributed to Bauer blowing a 5-3 lead in the fifth inning of Sunday’s game, and he apparently couldn’t contain his frustration.
Trevor Bauer got a little upset today. pic.twitter.com/cZ3ZdfdwIt
— ESPN (@espn) July 28, 2019
How it happened
Bauer and the Indians took a 5-3 lead into the fifth inning when the trouble began.
Alex Gordon opened the inning with a routine single. Then Hunter Dozier hit a fly ball to the center-field warning track that was deep but normally would have been caught for the first out. Problem was, center fielder Oscar Mercado lost it in the sun. It bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double.
Bauer then walked Jorge Soler on a close 3-2 pitch, and he couldn’t field Ryan O’Hearn’s slow ground ball in front of the plate, which went for a 20-foot RBI single.
Cheslor Cuthbert singled just out of the reach of second baseman Mike Freeman for another run. After a strikeout, Nicky Lopez added another single just out of the reach of Bauer.
All of the bad breaks were apparently too much for Bauer to take. He asked for a new ball, then fired it as far as he could over the centerfield wall, making several teammates flinch in the process.
Indians manager Terry Francona, already on his way out to the mound, angrily asked his pitcher what he was doing and pointed him to the dugout, where their argument continued.
The aftermath
Bauer and Francona went down into the clubhouse together before emerging separately.
After the game, Bauer said he apologized to teammates and then issued the following public apology, according to ESPN.com.
“I want to be clear that my frustrations were with myself and my inability to stop the situation and keep my team in the game,” he said. “I’m an intense competitor. That fire is what drives me. Today, it completely consumed me and took over.”
About his heave, he said: “It was unbecoming. It was childish. Unprofessional. There’s no place for it in the game.”
Trevor Bauer opened with an apology before taking any questions after throwing a ball over the center-field wall out of frustration in today’s game: pic.twitter.com/FUMxILdGmd
— Mandy Bell (@MandyBell02) July 28, 2019
