Last night, the Washington Nationals had a game to forget against the Atlanta Braves when they were blown out by a score of 16-4.
Things had gotten so bad that even after Juan Soto hit his 100th career home run, the Nationals had to turn to a position player to make an emergency pitching appearance late in the game.
Washington turned to super utility man Dee Strange-Gordon to pitch the bottom of the eighth inning at Truist Park in Atlanta.
But while Gordon was pitching to Braves’ slugger Matt Olson, he threw a pitch that clocked in at 34-mph, which is the slowest pitch on record in National League history.
This 34 MPH pitch last night by Dee Strange-Gordon is the slowest National League pitch on record. 🐌 pic.twitter.com/B4Wwf5FVDx
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) April 13, 2022
Bring Back The Eephus
Rarely are you going to see a pitch this slow.
But if position players are going to pitch in blowout games, there might be some aspect of entertainment to add to it.
Who says the great eephus pitch can’t be brought back?
It’s one of the classic pitches that have become lost arts in baseball.
But all jokes aside, this pitch was incredibly slow.
Perhaps Olson was expecting to get something that he could crush into the seats, in which case, he deserves credit for laying off that pitch.
Most hitters would be fooled by such a pitch, but Olson was not.
The fact that this is only the slowest pitch in National League history is also quite impressive.
Last year, Brock Holt, then a utility man for the Texas Rangers, threw a pitch that clocked in at 31-mph, which is the slowest pitch on record in Major League history.
Who knows when we’ll see a pitch that slow again.
Maybe the eephus pitch will make a comeback.
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