An intentional walk is supposed to be one of the biggest “gimme” plays in sports.
Don’t tell that to Blue Jays minor leaguer Alan Farina, though, whose inability to find his catcher during an attempted intentional free pass lost his team the game on Tuesday.
With men on second and third and two outs in the ninth inning of a tie game, Farina’s New Hampshire Fisher Cats elected to walk New Britain Rock Cats designated hitter Reynaldo Rodriguez to set up a force at any base. Farina’s first three pitches reached catcher Jack Murphy‘s glove without incident, but his fourth sailed to the backstop, allowing Eddie Rosario to score easily from third with the winning run.
Since the run was charged to fellow reliever Randy Boone, Farina did not take the loss in the ballgame, but did cement a prominent spot on lowlight reels for weeks to come.
Check out the blunder in the video below.
[milbvideo id=”29698053″ width=”640″ height=”360″]
