Tag: James Karinchak

The Tigers’ Javier Báez embarrassingly swung at a bouncing pitch and MLB fans had so many jokes

Fun fact: You don’t have to swing at every pitch.

While he can be one of the most electric and fun players in baseball at his absolute peaks, no one can deny that Javier Báez has some incredible lows.

When the Tigers (+1.5) took on the Guardians on Tuesday night, Báez had another unfortunate moment to forget. This time at the plate. As Detroit tried to rally from a 5-0 deficit in the eighth inning, James Karinchak let loose a soft, bouncing pitch. It was a pitch that most hitters probably wouldn’t have swung at under the circumstances.

Unfortunately, Báez’s patience, or lack thereof, got the best of him, and he embarrassingly took a swing at a ball that literally hit the dirt in front of him to strike out:

Oh, man. That’s brutal. The beauty of choice as a hitter is that you don’t actually have to swing at every pitch. In fact, that’s often encouraged for good offense! In this specific moment, that reality appeared to be lost on Báez, as the Tigers lost 5-2.

Indians pitcher takes mound with Ricky Vaughn haircut, immediately gives up grand slam

That did not go well.

Indians relief pitcher James Karinchak has been compared to fictional Indians pitcher Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn from the movie, Major League. He’s a hard-throwing, right-handed Indians relief pitcher who wears No. 99. Just as the movie character did, he enters the field to “Wild Thing.”

And for the Indians’ Wild Card series matchup with the Yankees, Karinchak went full Ricky Vaughn and got himself the same haircut that Charlie Sheen sported while playing the character. All of this could have been amazing (and somewhat fun), but Gio Urshela had other ideas.

Karinchak entered the game with the bases loaded in the fourth inning of Wednesday’s Game 2, and six pitches into the relief appearance, Vaughn Karinchak gave up a go-ahead grand slam.

Karinchak knew it was gone immediately — as did Gio.

And let’s just say that Yankees fans took delight in seeing a real-life (or fake, actually) Ricky Vaughn melt down against New York.

That’s going to be a tough one to bounce back from for Karinchak. He’ll need the glasses next time.

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