Texas Rangers first baseman J.P. Arencibia used to catch knuckleballer R.A. Dickey during his days with the Toronto Blue Jays. Arencibia must’ve learned a thing or two from the 2012 National League Cy Young Award winner because he threw some nasty pitches earlier this week.
The Tampa Bay Rays held a commanding 10-1 lead over the Rangers in the ninth inning of Wednesday night’s game. Instead of burning another relief pitcher, Texas called upon Arencibia to close out the final frame. He not only pitched the inning, but he didn’t allow a run.
[mlbvideo id=”35348343″ width=”640″ height=”360″ /]
Arencibia’s low-70 mph pitches kept the Rays off balance during the inning. He gave up just one infield single during his 10-pitch outing.
Some of his pitches looked like knuckleballs, though Arencibia claims he didn’t throw any.
[tweet https://twitter.com/jparencibia9/statuses/499767640265867265Â align=’center’%5D
Arencibia looked pretty good for his first-ever pitching outing. Maybe he’ll turn to pitching permanently at some point because his career .208 batting average sure looks like something a pitcher would have.
