{"id":22759,"date":"2025-05-07T01:13:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T07:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/?p=22759"},"modified":"2025-05-06T16:24:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T22:24:31","slug":"position-players-pitching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/position-players-pitching\/","title":{"rendered":"Position Players Pitching"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In the mid-2010s, putting in a position player to pitch in an effort to save overworked bullpens became more popular than ever before in the history of Major League Baseball.\u00a0 Starting in 2023, rules changes restricted position players from pitching unless their team is leading by ten or more runs in the 9th inning, their team is losing by eight or more runs at any time, or the game is in extra innings.\u00a0 This weekend, i saw my tenth<\/del> eighth position player pitch, so it seemed like a good time to review.<\/p>\n

5\/6\/2017<\/strong>
\nWith a depleted bullpen and down by five against the Yankees, Joe Maddon turned to catcher Miguel Montero to pitch the final inning.\u00a0 Montero’s inning could generously be called effectively wild, as he walked two and sailed one pitch over Chris Carter’s head but managed to escape without giving up a run.\u00a0 Maddon’s notion to avoid going back to his bullpen proved prescient, as the following night the two teams went 18 innings, with the Cubs losing by one.<\/p>\n

7\/6\/2017<\/strong>
\nExactly two months later, Maddon again turned to his bench rather than his bullpen as the Brewers held a nine-run lead heading into the 9th inning.\u00a0 This time he turned to veteran outfielder Jon Jay, who gave up just one hit while retiring the Brewers on just 16 pitches.<\/p>\n

6\/22\/2019<\/strong>
\nWrigley Field was again the stage for our next installment of position players pitching, as catcher Victor Caratini took the mound for the 9th inning with the Cubs down 10-1 to the Mets.\u00a0 He did his part, throwing a 1-2-3 inning and giving the Cubs a chance to mount a comeback in the bottom of the 9th.\u00a0 The rally fell short, however, as the Cubs lost 10-2.<\/p>\n

8\/17\/2021<\/strong>
\nWe move to the South Side for our next occurrence, this time for an opponent.\u00a0 With the White Sox leading the A’s 9-0, first baseman Mitch Moreland came out to face the White Sox in the bottom of the 8th.\u00a0 Facing the bottom of the batting order, Moreland gave up a single to Danny Mendick en route to a scoreless outing.<\/p>\n

9\/16\/2021<\/strong>
\nNearly a month later, the shoe was on the other foot as the White Sox were losing 9-3 to the Angels at Guaranteed Rate Field.\u00a0 With two outs in the top of the 9th, Rick Renteria picks Romy Gonzalez to nail down the final out.\u00a0 With Shohei Ohtani on first base, Gonzalez strikes out Max Stassi on four pitches to end the inning.<\/p>\n

7\/9\/2022<\/strong>
\nWith pitching in his genes, Kody Clemens took the mound for the bottom of the 8th with his Tigers trailing the White Sox 8-0.\u00a0 Clemens did what none of his fellow Tigers could accomplish that day, giving up no hits and retiring the side on only fourteen pitches.<\/p>\n

4\/3\/2023<\/strong>
\nThe Giants had a big 7-3 lead against the White Sox heading into the 9th inning when Jose Ruiz took the mound looking to hold the line.\u00a0 Instead, he faced six batters, giving up five runs on two home runs while only getting a single out.\u00a0 Down by nine, rookie manager Pedro Grifol brought in infielder Hanser Alberto to mop up.\u00a0 He gave up two hits but wrapped up the inning without giving up a run.<\/p>\n

5\/1\/2025<\/strong>
\nWith the White Sox holding a surprising 8-0 lead over the Brewers, Jake Bauers, who started the game in left field, came in to pitch the bottom of the 8th.\u00a0 He quickly put down the White Sox, getting a 1-2-3 inning on just ten pitches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the mid-2010s, putting in a position player to pitch in an effort to save overworked bullpens became more popular than ever before in the history of Major League Baseball.\u00a0 Starting in 2023, rules changes restricted position players from pitching unless their team is leading by ten or more runs in the 9th inning, their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[123,110,121,3549,120,8490,256,6917,10597,11992,896,9714,9664,11991,11990,261,5172,11989,10214,4119,10599,8049,230,9118,49,595,51],"class_list":["post-22759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","tag-as","tag-angels","tag-brewers","tag-chris-carter","tag-cubs","tag-danny-mendick","tag-giants","tag-guaranteed-rate-field","tag-hanser-alberto","tag-jake-bauers","tag-joe-maddon","tag-jon-jay","tag-jose-ruiz","tag-kody-clemens","tag-max-stassi","tag-mets","tag-miguel-montero","tag-mitch-moreland","tag-pedro-grifol","tag-rick-renteria","tag-romy-gonzalez","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-tigers","tag-victor-caratini","tag-white-sox","tag-wrigley-field","tag-yankees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22759"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22771,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22759\/revisions\/22771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}