Athletics third baseman Danny Valencia had to leave Wednesday’s game against the Yankees in the fourth inning due to a strained hamstring, which left the A’s in a bit of a pickle. Manager Bob Melvin opted to move Chris Coghlan from second to third base, and Jed Lowrie moved from DH to second base. The A’s lost the DH in the process, which meant starter Kendall Graveman occupied Valencia’s spot in the lineup -- the cleanup spot.
The baseball world waited with bated breath for Graveman to take a turn at the plate, as he would become the first starting pitcher to take an at-bat at the new Yankee Stadium, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. As one might have predicted, Graveman struck out on three pitches against Nathan Eovaldi to end the fifth inning. Still, pretty cool.
[mlbvideo id="606102083" width="600" height="336" /]
