Blue Jays manager John Gibbons finally threw up his hands in the ninth inning of this afternoon’s Game 4 blowout loss to the Royals, pulling reliever Mark Lowe with two outs and bringing in utility infielder Cliff Pennington to pitch.
The move provided actual laughter in a laugher of a game, as Pennington allowed two runs before getting a foul out to mercifully end the scoring at 14-2. Pennington had never pitched in a big-league game, but he looked pretty decent while throwing in the low-90s to easily top the velocity of both starting pitchers (Chris Young and R.A. Dickey).
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But that’s actually burying the lead: Pennington became the first true position player to pitch in a playoff game ... ever.