Blue Jays' ex-slugger Rowdy Tellez hit his former teammate with a pitch, and the reactions are priceless
Sometimes, the most priceless moments on a baseball field are the least expected.
Take the closing stages of Texas Rangers at Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday. The game was out of hand, in favor of the hosts up north. But there was still one fun moment to come.
Rowdy Tellez, the hulking slugger that used to play for the Blue Jays, was on the mound, a position player handling mop-up duty.
At the plate was George Springer, who used to be Rowdy's teammate.
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Tellez plunked him.
Look at these smiles:
The pitch came in at such a tame pace that the radar gun apparently didn't even pick up its velocity.
It's unlikely that it left a bruise, which helps make the whole moment laughable.
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No one wants to be in that spot. The position player doesn't want to pitch as a losing player in a blowout. The hitter doesn't necessarily want that at bat, because it's less competitive and it also feels embarrassing to make an out.
But with bullpen rules and pitch count concerns, it's something that happens more and more in modern baseball.
At least for the sake of this matchup, it created a moment of levity in a game that had long been over.
Tellez and Springer will probably be able to laugh at this one together for a long time.
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