A Catcher Pitched To A Pitcher Last Night, And It Was Great

Last night's Dodgers-Cardinals game was well out of hand by the ninth inning, so fans were treated to one of baseball's rarest joys: a position player taking the mound for some mop-up duty. And this particular instance was made all the better by the fact that it involved a relief pitcher who was making the first plate appearance of his career.

I love this at-bat because it features two guys who so plainly could not give less of a shit. Rob Johnson is a career minor-leaguer and a backup catcher who's gotten a meager 13 plate apperances this year. He takes roughly negative two seconds between pitches because he just wants to get this shit over with so he can go take a shower.

And Paco Rodriguez probably assumed that being a relief pitcher would exclude him from ever having to step into the box, and would certainly save him from ever having to deal with short-armed fastballs delivered by a burly and possibly wild catcher. No dice, Paco. Dig in and take your strikeout.

A lot of cool things happened in baseball last night (be sure to check out Matt Harvey annihilating the poor Rockies), but sometimes sports are the most fun when the athletes involved are giving no fucks.