Red Sox relief pitcher Jake Diekman had an afternoon to forget on Sunday. He had a costly wild pitch. He gave up a home run. He only lasted .2 innings. But amid all that frustration, he might have unleashed the boldest of gamesmanship on the Tampa Bay Rays.
The first pitch Diekman threw in relief against the Tampa Bay Rays was a wild pitch with Kevin Kiermaier on third and Randy Arozarena on second. Kiermaier slid in to score easily, but you have to watch how Diekman handled the sequence.
As Kiermaier dove into home, Diekman hopped over the Rays outfielder and walked towards the backstop with his back turned towards home plate. The broadcast was convinced that he fell asleep on the play. Did Diekman just completely forget the situation …. or did he mean to bait Arozarena into aggressive baserunning?
Jake Diekman's first pitch out of the bullpen was wild, a run scored, and then he completely falls asleep with the ball in his glove and almost gives up another pic.twitter.com/Jiv1s5xAeU
— MLB Errors (@mlberrors) April 24, 2022
Watching it live, it did seem like Diekman just stopped paying attention. But as a reliever entering the game with runners on base, he had to know the situation. After all, he only threw one pitch. It wouldn’t have made much sense for him to pout behind the plate if he didn’t know exactly what he was doing.
If it was gamesmanship, it worked to perfection because Diekman was able to tag Arozarena out at home to end the inning. The fist pump from catcher Christian Vazquez also kind of made it look like they were in on the trick.
It didn’t appear that Diekman was asked about the play after the game, so we don’t know if there was actually intent behind it. But if there was, you have to respect that boldness in the moment — even if the rest of the outing was forgettable.
The Rays ended up winning, 5-2, on Sunday to take the series.
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