When a position player comes in to pitching during a blowout, there often are funny results that come from it.
That was the case in the Braves’ 16-4 win over the Nationals on Tuesday night in Atlanta.
The Nationals’ Dee Strange-Gordon, normally a second baseman, was called on to pitch mop-up duty and hit catcher Travis D’arnaud with a 55 mile-per-hour pitch. When the former Met was hit, he playfully fell to the ground.
Gordon — who entered the game in the eighth inning — allowed three earned runs, including a solo homer to Ozzie Albies, in his one inning of work.
That benign plunking was a marked contrast from the Mets-Nationals series in which multiple members of the Amazin’s were hit by pitches at much faster speeds and led to the benches clearing.