Talk a couple of ground out.
The Columbus Clippers and Toledo Mud Hens produced one among baseball’s most unusual performs on Wednesday evening.
In the underside of the second inning, Clippers third baseman Ernie Clement despatched an 0-1 pitch from Joey Wentz… into the ground.
Literally.
Clement, a Rochester native, appeared startled by the embedded ball, and stepped towards first, although Mud Hens catcher Dustin Garneau was on prime of it and tagged Clement out.
The play appeared to stun everybody, together with the broadcasting group.
“Clement, by the time he unwound himself … it didn’t even … are you kidding me?” the group’s play-by play announcer mentioned whereas watching the play. “As we look at the replay here, the ball didn’t bounce at all. It buried in the infield dirt. A third of that ball is submerged!”
Columbus Clippers broadcaster Ryan Mitchell mentioned a variety of followers on the recreation won’t have realized what occurred within the second. Depending how a lot the grounds crew waters the world round residence plate, balls could be chopped proper into the grime and never transfer a lot, he famous.
“It’s certainly not unprecedented but it is very, very unusual,” he mentioned.
“To me that’s the best part of baseball is you can be coming to the ballpark every single day, all season long for season after season and season and there’s a really good chance you’re gonna see something at a ballpark you’ve never seen before,” Mitchell mentioned. “and for a lot of people that were there tonight and the reaction online, most have never seen what happened at Huntington Park tonight.”
The Mud Hens, the Triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, went on to win, 4-0, over the Clippers, the highest minor league group MLB’s Cleveland Guardians.