Major League Baseball

Colton Cowser caught the final out of the Orioles’ 9-7 win over the Royals on Saturday night, then lined up at the edge of the left-field warning track and ceremoniously threw the ball backward behind his head.

“I just yeeted it behind me,” the 24-year-old outfielder said.

It was at that moment, he knew: He had made a big mistake.

The reason? It was the ball that sealed Baltimore closer Craig Kimbrel’s 422nd career big league save, which tied Billy Wagner for seventh on the AL/NL all-time list.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14496914

PITTSBURGH -- Cam Booser will likely never forget the date: Feb. 21, 2021.

Booser had officially moved on from professional baseball more than three years prior, but through a bit of fate, he found himself on a mound for the first time since then. He wasn’t playing a game. He didn’t strike anyone out. There were hardly any witnesses. But he felt it, something that had eluded him in his first try.

“I realized there was no pain,” Booser said. “We can still throw in the upper 90s. That’s when I thought I would give it a shot.”

Of course, it wasn’t as simple as saying he was ready to give it another go. No comeback journey as long as that of the 31-year-old lefty reliever, who was called up by the Red Sox ahead of their 8-1 win over the Pirates on Friday, could ever be that easy.

The winding path Booser took began with the Twins in 2013. After five seasons of middling results that left him stalled in High-A ball, Minnesota attempted to convert him to an outfielder, which proved to be unsuccessful.

This followed years of obstacles in Booser’s development, including Tommy John surgery, labrum surgery, a broken back following a bike accident, a 50-game suspension for testing positive for marijuana and self-admitted attitude problems. After the 2017 season, Booser decided to call it quits.

So instead of building a career as a pitcher, Booser moved home to Seattle and built something else: acoustical ceilings.

Booser joined the Northwest Carpenters Union in the area, Local 41, to work for the company that his father had worked at for many years. He admits that in terms of construction, he was a Minor Leaguer compared to his coworkers who could “do it in their sleep.”

But he was harboring the same dream he’d had when he was signed as an undrafted free agent with the Twins.

“Every day I was working in construction, I thought about the game,” Booser said. “Every single day.”

To get there, he couldn’t do it with a snap of the finger. It took some baby steps. Or in his case, kid-sized steps.

Booser’s return to baseball began by giving back to the game, teaching baseball lessons to children in the area. He began to spend more time at the ballpark, and that evolved into more hours after practice, throwing in the dark -- sometimes to the kids he was training.

“I didn’t think about ever actually making a comeback until I started working with them,” Booser said. “It was just the more I was around the game, the more I couldn’t not be around it. It was like it just pulled me back in.

“I just decided one day that I was going to leave work and go all in on this, and I haven’t looked back since.”

A friend of Booser pushed him to take the next step: Getting a trainer. That became Kyle Rogers, a former instructor at Driveline Baseball, who saw the potential and began to post videos of Booser’s sessions on Twitter, including his first time facing hitters in four years.

Before MLB came calling, independent ball did. The Chicago Dogs of the American Association signed Booser in the summer of 2021, and in his professional debut, he topped out at 101 mph. The D-backs took notice of Booser’s strong work at Chicago, and they signed him to a Minor League deal on Feb. 16, 2022 -- five days before his one-year anniversary of stepping on the mound again.

A little over one year later, Booser made his Major League debut with the Red Sox, working around a first-pitch triple and recording his first Major League strikeout in a one-run ninth inning. In the process, he struck out former NL MVP Andrew McCutchen for his first K. Booser, 31, became the oldest Red Sox player (excluding those who played in Japan) to make his Majors debut since 32-year-old Tommy Fine (April 26, 1947).

"It was the most adrenaline I've ever experienced, but it was great. It was all excitement," Booser said.

Manager Alex Cora said he was on the call with Triple-A Worcester manager Chad Tracy when he delivered the news to Booser that he was finally a Major Leaguer.

“It didn’t resonate with him,” Cora said. “[Tracy was] like, ‘Yeah, for Alex, in Pittsburgh.’ And that’s where he let the emotions go. Like I told him today, there’s only 780 of them in the world today -- big leaguers -- and nobody can take that away from him.”

Did Booser ever have doubts that he could reach this moment?

“Definitely. Most of my career I would say,” Booser said. “The first part of my career was, by my own doing, pretty bad. I made a few mistakes. But I think when I was able to come back and get a better head on my shoulders, things were a lot more clear.”

Booser went from toiling in the lower levels to now recording 25 strikeouts to one walk across Spring Training and Triple-A to begin this season by doing the only thing you can do in this tough game: He learned from his failures. His command is better. His mindset is better.

But Booser’s story of redemption? It’s among the best.

“It’s been a long journey, but it’s been a good one,” he said.

Video surfaced this week that appears to show Rockies hitting coach Hensley Meulens sitting in a pilot’s seat while the April 10 flight was at cruising altitude. It is against federal regulations for unauthorized people to be on the flight deck.

He can be seen and heard on the video joking with other people in the cockpit — including a person in a pilot’s uniform and at least one other person who does not appear to be an airline employee — and says the plane is at 35,000 feet (10,670 meters).

“Flying the plane, here to Toronto,” Meulens says as he gestures toward the person in uniform sitting next to him.

“I’m going to land the plane tonight. So relax,” he says. He then reaches toward the flight controls and pretends to take hold, saying, ”I just press this button ... and it goes down.”

Meulens posted the video to a social media site and later deleted it, but it had already gone viral and was reposted, The Denver Post reported. He could not be immediately reached for comment through the Rockies’ administrative offices.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14460218

It seemed an inauspicious beginning as Webb allowed back-to-back singles to Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll to open the game. But as it turned out, that was the only real threat the D-backs mounted against the Giants' ace.

Webb got out of the first inning unscathed with two forceouts and a strikeout, then kept the D-backs off the bases until the seventh inning, when Christian Walker drew a one-out walk -- and was subsequently picked off. In all, Webb allowed just three baserunners and struck out five.

Webb's 19 consecutive outs against the D-backs were a career high, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. His previous record was 16 straight at Coors Field on May 18, 2022.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14460211

Cijntje (pronounced SAIN-ja) is a Mississippi State sophomore who can pitch baseballs with both arms. He's a right-handed pitcher. He's also a left-handed pitcher. And he's only getting better at it as he gets older.

"I throw 99 from the right side," Cijntje said, quite matter-of-factly. "And from the left side, I top out at 95."

Cijntje's ambidexterity began back when he was 6 years old on the Caribbean shores of baseball-loving Curaçao.

He was born a left-hander, but he wanted to be a catcher -- like his dad Mechangelo -- who played professionally in the Netherlands. Left-handed catchers are almost as rare as ambidextrous pitchers. So, he began working on the strength and accuracy of his right arm. With tires and screws.

"We were just hanging out one time in the backyard," Cijntje remembered. "And my dad grabbed a ball and put a screw in it. So, when I threw the ball, the ball would get stuck in the tire. I was just throwing the ball with the screw in it and I think that developed my arm. It didn't actually take long for me to just start throwing with my right arm. ... It became almost natural."

PHOENIX -- The stars were out, the streets were quiet and Hayden Wesneski was fast asleep when he heard a knock on his bedroom door. It was his roommate and Triple-A Iowa teammate Matt Mervis, entering to tell Wesneski to check his phone. Wesneski was being called up. It was 1 a.m. in Des Moines.

Fourteen hours later, the 26-year-old Cubs right-hander stood in the visiting clubhouse at Chase Field, sleep-deprived but flush with adrenaline. He’d gotten some shuteye -- at least as much as one can get on a plane -- but he’d also just gotten 12 crucial outs. With Chicago’s bullpen also running on fumes, Wesneski had shut down a talented Diamondbacks offense for four scoreless innings to secure a 5-3, series-clinching win.

“It was probably our best pitching performance of the year,” said Cubs manager Craig Counsell.

It certainly was clutch. After two consecutive extra-inning games, and 10 2/3 innings from the relievers, the Cubs began the day desperate for fresh arms, which is why Wesneski and reliever Colten Brewer were summoned from Triple-A on such short notice. Wesneski arrived at the park roughly two hours before game time, low on rest but with the knowledge that he’d almost assuredly pitch. When Cubs starter Jordan Wicks left with one out in the fifth, Counsell went to Wesneski.

Over the next four innings, the righty stifled a Diamondbacks lineup that had scored 12 runs the night before. Relying primarily on a sweeper and a fastball that topped 97.5 mph, Wesneski allowed only one hit, a one-out double to Randal Grichuk in the sixth, and walked none. He struck out two and allowed only two balls to leave the infield. Counsell rode him all the way to the ninth inning -- a stretch during which the Cubs managed to take a three-run lead -- finally pulling the reliever after Grichuk popped out to start the final frame.

Not only did he hurl a shutout, but Houck completed a “Maddux" in a 2-0 victory over Cleveland that took just 1 hour, 49 minutes to complete -- the shortest nine-inning game since June 2, 2010 -- since Armando Galarraga's near-perfect game for Detroit.

A Maddux, in honor of Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, refers to a shutout accomplished in fewer than 100 pitches.