Nathan Eovaldi took the ball for the first opening day start of his career in his customary No. 17 jersey. Then in the third inning, he came out in Christian Vazquez's No. 7, making for a mirrored battery.
He finished the game back in the 17, leading to an obvious question: what the heck happened?
Eovaldi explained.
"I guess Vazquy and I, we both sweat a lot, so we had the jerseys hanging up down in the batting cage," he said after tossing six innings of a one-run ball in a 13-2 demolition of the Orioles. "I didn't realize his were down there, too. I glanced over and I just saw the seven and assumed it was mine and grabbed it off the hanger, threw it on. Once I came back to the dugout, they were like, 'That a boy, Vazquy.' And I was like, 'What?'"
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It didn't slow him down. Eovaldi hit 100 mph with his first pitch of the night and struck out Chris Davis swinging with his 89th and last. In between, he allowed only five hits, striking out four.
The uniform mixup did explain one perplexing issue, which his teammates cleared up when they told him what he was wearing.
"I thought it felt a little bit tight on my arms," Eovaldi said. "But it's all good."